Assembly session: Education minister censured for closing maktabs

K-P BOIT Bill 2015 passed unanimously

PESHAWAR: Opposition members in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly criticised the Ministry of Elementary and Secondary Education on Tuesday for closing maktab schools in certain areas in the province.

The issue was raised by Qaumi Watan Party member Meraj Humayun who sought details of children enrolled in maktabs. As per information provided by the department, 38,141 students were enrolled in maktabs.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl Buner MPA Mufti Fazal Ghafoor and Awami National Party parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak took Humayun’s point forward which landed the Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education Muhammad Atif Khan in hot water.

Atif explained maktabs were schools  started in mosques during the regime of former military dictator Ziaul Haq where prayer leaders educated children in return for a salary from the government. He said these single-room maktabs were now replaced by government primary schools. “If a maktab falls within 1.5 kilometres of a regular school, old or newly constructed, the former is closed and all the children of the vicinity are enrolled at the government school,” Atif said. He added about 100 schools were being constructed every year.

However, Babak said, “Not a single new primary school was built in the last two-and-a-half years by the current government but 1,000 maktabs were closed.” He added, “The minister should review his decision because it may take 35 years to build 1,000 schools that have been shut down.”

Speaker Asad Qaiser then asked the house to put the issue for discussion on a separate day.

Tying other ends

The house unanimously passed the K-P Board of Investment and Trade (BOIT) Bill 2015. Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Human Rights Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi moved the resolution to pass the bill. Qureshi was also moving a resolution to pass a bill to censor films, CD dramas, stage dramas and shows but was unable to since the relevant minister was not present.

Call attention notice of PML-N lawmaker Arbab Akbar Hayat regarding service structure of teachers in Department of Physical Education (DPE) was referred to the relevant committee for discussion.

Mufti Syed Janan of JUI-F had a call attention notice over non-distribution of relief items provided by PDMA. The food items had rotted as they were not distributed by government in Hangu.

The speaker announced discussion on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will take place on Tuesday (today). The session was then adjourned.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st,  2015.