Schools still without boundary walls, other facilities, Punjab PA told

LAHORE: Acting Punjab Assembly Speaker Sher Ali Gorchani Monday in the House censured Parliamentary Secretary for Schools and Education Joyce Rufin Julius for being ignorant of her department and failing to give satisfactory answers on the state of public schools in the province.
Most of the questions were ruled pending and surrendered to the Standing Committee on Education for inquiry. The Punjab Assembly session held Monday with less than 40 MPAs present in the House and only four persons on the Opposition bench. The cabinet was also poorly represented with Minister for Law, Excise and Taxation Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman and Minister for Education and Youth Affairs Rana Mashhood absent as is usual for most PA sessions. JI MPA Dr Syed Waseem Akhtar called out the treasury bench for failing to ensure the presence of cabinet members, especially on days where their department is being questioned, and leaving the burden to the mercy of ill-informed parliamentary secretaries.
Opposition members PPP MPA Faiza Ahmed Malik and independent MPA Ehsan Riaz Fatyana questioned the Parliamentary Secretary for Schools and Education on missing facilities in government schools for girls in Faisalabad.
They pointed out that the absence of boundary walls, electricity, adequate washrooms, furniture, and clean drinking water for female students, was a violation of new security orders after the APS Peshawar attack. PPP MPA blasted Parliamentary Secretary Julius for lack of teachers posted in impoverished districts of the province and demanded that teachers in government schools be regularised and paid on time.
She demanded an audit of five years of spending by the Education Department on Government Comprehensive Girls High School here on Wahdat Road. Voicing similar concerns, PML-N Sheikh Allauddin pointed out that 80 percent of government schools in Kasur district were understaffed.
Referring to the illegal occupation of property allotted for schools and staff housing, JI MPA Dr Akhtar claimed that land under the department budget allocated for the house of Government Pilot Girls High School on Wahdat Road was being used as an office. PML-N MPA Raheela Khadim Hussain lamented over the fact that no government schools for girls was functional in Ahmadabad, Jhelum District despite popular demand of the locals.