Legislators shy away from honouring Aitizaz Hasan

Assembly takes up day’s issues after brief statements by PPP, PTI lawmakers.

PESHAWAR:

At a time when the bravery of Aitizaz Hasan, the teenager from Hangu district, is being discussed nationally, legislators in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly barely took out time to laud his heroic efforts.

Members from both the treasury and opposition benches, who rarely spare an opportunity to talk endlessly on the most frivolous issues, did not pay much attention when Pakistan Peoples Party lawmaker Nighat Orakzai raised the issue on a point of order.

Orakzai asked the government to give an award to Hasan for his outstanding gallantry when he saved countless lives by embracing a suicide bomber. Orakzai also praised slain Karachi cop Chaudary Aslam and asked that the assembly pass a resolution condemning the attacks. Following Orakzai’s remarks, speaker Asad Qaiser asked Minister for Information Shah Farman to speak on the issue. Farman informed the house IGP Nasir Khan Durrani has recommended Hasan for a civil award. He then went round in circles over the issue of terrorism and did not condemn the attacks outright. Later, as no other legislator wanted a discussion on the subject, the speaker moved to the house’s agenda for the day.



Regular agenda

The assembly was informed that the education department will employ around 8,090 teachers in April, before the start of the new academic session.

Responding to a question, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Muhammad Atif Khan said the province was presently facing a shortage of about 14,000 teachers. He said when the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government came to power, posts of about 12,000 teachers were vacant across the province.

He said after the hiring of 8,090 teachers, the remaining 6,000 will be recruited within three months after the academic session starts.

He said his department will start monitoring schools across the province from February when the independent monitoring unit becomes functional. He said the proposed unit’s officials will visit schools and apprise the department through a laptop or a smartphone after checking the school. Officials will inform the department about the ground reality on the school premises, he added.

The assembly also passed a unanimous resolution directing the provincial government to ask the centre to take up the issue of Pakistani labourers with the Saudi government.

The issue was raised by Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker from Upper Dir, Mohammad Ali, who said thousands of Pakistani labourers were employed in Saudi Arabia, however, owing to strict visa regulations, many of them were now facing unemployment. He said a large number of these expats belonged to K-P, adding a labourer belonging to Usherai Darra locality of Upper Dir committed suicide on September 8, 2013 owing to visa issues in Saudi Arabia. He said an all-parties jirga should be sent to Saudi Arabia so it can take up the issue with the Kingdom’s officials.

Minister for Finance Sirajul Haq said the provincial government will take up the issue with the centre. The session was adjourned till Monday afternoon after evening prayers due to a lack of quorum.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2014.

Correction: An earlier version of this article carried the incorrect spelling of Aitizaz; this has been now corrected. We regret the error.