Over 4.7m children out of school in K-P

One million out-of-school children belong to merged districts; 74.4% are girls and 38.5% boys

PESHAWAR:

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was informed on Monday that according to a survey conducted by Benazir Income Support Programme 2021, 4.7 million children of ages of five to sixteen years are out of school in the province, out of which 2.9 million are girls.

The information was shared in an adjournment motion of independent MPA Mir Kalam Wazir that was admitted for debate.

He said that out of 4.7 million children one million belong to merged districts and 74.4 per cent of them are girls and 38.5 per cent are boys.

He said that 66 per cent of children in North Waziristan are out of school, 63 per cent in Bajaur, 61 per cent in South Waziristan, 51 per cent in Mohmand and Khyber each, and 47 per cent in Kurram and Orakazai each.

In response to the adjournment motion, Minister for Higher Education Kamran Bangash said that the provincial government is taking measures to improve the literacy rate in the province and has started enrollment drives.

He supported the admission of the adjournment motion for detailed debate to get the opinion of the House in this regard.

Later, Deputy Speaker Mahmood Jan put the motion to vote and the house admitted for debate.

Similarly, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly also admitted a privilege motion of Nighat Yasmin Orakzai of PPP against the secretary of transport.

Orkazai said that the provincial assembly had passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Employees of Transport Department Regularization of Service Act 2022 on May 30, 2022, but the provincial secretary of transport is not accepting it.

She alleged that he has opposed and issued instructions to the director transport on September 7, 2022, that the said despite the passage of the act passed by the house the employees of the department would not be regularised, which is tantamount to breaching the privilege of the whole house.

She stressed handing over the motion to the privilege committee of the house and till the final ruling on the motion, the secretary concerned should be made OSD.

Minister for Transport Shah Muhammad said that the assembly is supreme and asked the chair to put the motion to vote.

After approval from the house, the privilege motion was referred to the relevant committee of the house.

Sexual abuse against children Expressing concern over the continuous increase in sexual abuse of children and girls in the province, the opposition benches demanded that laws are made in the assembly but they were not implemented.

The unrest in the province has become a great threat to the government.

Despite the claims that it is the responsibility of the police to prevent incidents of sexual violence, we have failed to achieve the goals, the MPA protested.

Nighat Orakzai in her adjournment motion, while starting the discussion, said that children were sexually assaulted on a routine basis.