Number of out of school children of 4-12 stands at 22.44m, Senate told

ISLAMABAD: The Senate was informed Tuesday that the total number of out of school children (OOSC) of 4-12 years stood at worrying 22.45 million in 2016-17, which was recorded at 26.45 million in 2011-12.

During the question hour, Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Muhammad Balighur Rehman said that the total number of illiterate persons of ten years and above was 56.6 million (42 per cent) in 2011-12 and it was 57.7 million (40 per cent) in 2014-15.

However, he said due to effective measures of the government at federal and provincial level, the net enrollment rate of school children had improved from 68 percent to 77 percent in last four years. He was responding to a question by Senator Sherry Rehman.

He said an additional capacity of about five million children had been created to enroll children in public sector schools across the country. He added that about four million out of school children had been enrolled in schools. He said free primary education was being provided in all public sector schools across Pakistan and provincial governments were providing required funding for this purpose.

To another question, Minister for States and Frontier Regions Abdul Qadir Baloch informed the House that 10,715 Pakistanis were imprisoned abroad while 36,832 Pakistanis had been released and repatriated to Pakistan during the last four years. He explained that 90-95 per cent of those were held for overstay or having illegal documents.

Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Ms. Saira Afzal Tarar said that Pakistan had one of the world’s highest burden of viral hepatitis and that a 2007-08 survey showed that around 8 million people had HCV in Pakistan. She explained that each year 50000 new HCV cases were added in the population and as per this estimation in 2013, HCV cases were around 10.5 million while in 2017, such cases jumped to 12.5 million.

On behalf of Senator Syed Muzaffar Shah, Senator Farhatullah Babar presented a report of the Special Committee on the performance of PIA, on a calling attention notice by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla on his behalf and behalf of senators Shahi Syed, Mir Yousaf Badini and Muhammad Yousaf regarding ‘the sale of PIA airbus A-310 to a German firm in violation of PPRA rules.

The report noted that it is strange that, as claimed, the matter of sale of aircraft was confined to only two officers, namely, the then CEO and director (P&L). The PIA management could not escape a measure of responsibility even though it took some positive actions after the matter became public; terminated CEO and reverting the director to his parent ministry seen too little too late; the former was allowed to go abroad despite his name being on ECL and the show-cause notice issued to the latter not pursued.

The report said two firm and clearly defined steps also needed to be taken. One, ex-CEO Bernd Hildenbrand, who was allowed to leave Pakistan for a month, should be brought back. The Foreign Office should be asked to vigorously pursue it with German embassy on whose intercession the limited one time waiver from ECL was reportedly granted. Two, the notice issued to then director be pursued to logical conclusion. The Senate secretariat be regularly kept informed of the progress in both.