Back and forth: Lawmaker corners education minister in assembly session

Questions appointment of non-resident female school teachers.

PESHAWAR:

The question hour in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Tuesday turned out to be a difficult one for the education minister when a lawmaker from Torghar district served him a volley of questions.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) lawmaker from Torghar, Zarin Gul, has emerged as the most curious assembly member over the past few sessions with his barrage of questions and hunger for more details.

During the question hour, Education Minister Atif Khan told the house all vacancies in the education department had been filled as per the recruitment policy, while primary school posts were filled on union council (UC) basis. In response, Gul said the local government department had informed the house on September 11 that UCs were yet to be formed in Torghar.

Gul asked the education minister which department had misinformed him and urged the assembly speaker to refer the matter to the privilege committee as the department had breached the privilege of the house. Atif Khan then asked Gul to sit down with him later to settle the matter.

The second question the JUI-F lawmaker put to the education department was whether a secondary school existed in Torghar, to which he was replied in the negative.

Gul, however, informed the house a secondary school did indeed exist in Torghar and has been functional in his native village of Meera Madakhel since 1995. He then confronted the education minister with the revelation.

Amidst the opposition’s cheers for Gul, the education minister said he would suspend the official responsible for providing him inaccurate information.

Gul then questioned the appointment of females belonging to other districts as teachers in primary schools of Torghar, which the government insisted was as per policy. However, Gul told the house only three out of the 83 appointed teachers belonged to Torghar, while the quota seats for people with disabilities was also allotted to outsiders.

“In Torghar, jobs in police have been given to Kohistanis and education has been handed over to people from Buner. Should the people of Torghar migrate to other districts?” he questioned. “Hiring masters’ degree holders from Mansehra and Malakand makes no sense as they would not be able to travel the long distances,” said Gul.

The education minister in response said employing better qualified people from outside the district would help improve education standards in Torghar. However, the JUI-F lawmaker was not satisfied with the response and referred all questions to the standing committee.

Finance Minister Sirajul Haq attempted to pacify Gul by pointing out Dir and Chitral districts also lacked development projects earlier, but they have progressed over time.

“The government cannot solve all problems overnight,” said Haq. He promised to allocate development funds for Torghar in the next budget.

Also during the session, the government formed a committee including Syed Jaffer Shah, Amna Sardar, Arbab Akbar Hayat and Samiullah Alizai to discuss the Right to Information (RTI) Ordinance. The committee will take a month to complete its dissection of the proposed law.

Meanwhile, in response to JUI-F lawmaker Shah Hussain Khan’s calling attention notice, the minister for elementary and secondary education acknowledged mistakes in textbooks and said a review committee had been formed and errata has also been published, while books containing mistakes have been discontinued.

Meanwhile, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Israrullah Gandapur ordered an investigation into a case of the rape of two girls in Peshawar after JUI-F lawmaker Uzma Khan pointed it out on a point of order.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2013.