Social equality: Public schooling urged for lawmakers’ children

Jahangir Wattoo introduces amendments to Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929.

LAHORE:

The Provincial Assembly passed a resolution on Tuesday encouraging lawmakers and bureaucrats to enrol their children in public schools.

The House also passed two other resolutions – one related to imposing heavy fines on those found guilty of causing casualties in road accidents and the other recommending the federal government to impose a tax on the import of grains.

Moving the resolution on public schools, Sheikh Ijaz Ahmad said that lawmakers should send their children to government schools in order to improve the standards of education at public schools and overcome the sense of deprivation among students there. He said he had enrolled both his sons at a government school. “We cannot feel their [public school students’] pain unless our own children study in the same environment.” The resolution was carried.

Pakistan Peoples Party’s Khurram Jahangir Wattoo introduced amendments to the Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929 proposing to raise the amount of penalty and imprisonment for those accused of violating various sections of the law.

The amendments call for increasing the penalties from Rs30,000 to Rs100,000 and imprisonment from six months to up to three years.

Wattoo said the Act, last amended in 1971, was no longer strong enough to secure the fundamental rights of children.

Parliamentary Secretary Mehwish Sultana responded to queries related to the Higher Education Department. Some members, including Mian Tahir and Asif Bajwa, were unhappy with her answers.

“Where should we lodge our protest if we are not given adequate replies?” said Tahir.

Sardar Javed Akhtar, rising on a point of order, said a journalist had accused lawmakers from southern Punjab of selling their votes for the upcoming Senate elections.

“The allegation is unfair,” he said.

Deputy Speaker Sardar Sher Ali Gorchani also expressed his reservations in this regard saying that members from the region were honourable people.

Waseem Akhtar expressed concern over raise in the fare of umrah tickets by the Pakistan International Airlines. He also accused the Punjab Examination Commission of mismanaging grade 5 and 8 examinations.

When the chair asked him to take up the issue with the education minister, he responded that the minister was absent from the House. “A [missing person] FIR should be registered as the minister has been away from the House for quite sometime.”

Akhtar briefed the House on the construction of a mosque on the assembly premises. He said groundbreaking for the Rs250 million project would be held on Friday.

Protest

The main entrance to the assembly remained closed for the second consecutive day due to a sit-in by some visually impaired activists. The protesters demanded that the government raise the job quota for the disabled.

Some opposition members, including Khurram Jahangir Wattoo and Khadija Umar, staged a walk out in protest saying that they had not been given an opportunity to speak on the issue.  Gorchani said such a protest demonstration had never been allowed on the assembly premises.

“The sanctity of the House should not be compromised. Members have been forced to use the back door to enter the House. The protesters are taking an undue advantage of leniency shown to them.”

Gorchani said Zaeem Qadri, a spokesman for the government, and the assembly staff had held talks with the protesters. Human Rights and Minorities Affairs Minister Khalil Tahir Sindhu said some people had been instigating the protesters.

The session was later adjourned until Wednesday.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2015.