Hindrance in projects: Former minister blames secretary

KARACHI: Former education minister and a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) stalwart, Pir Mazharul Haq, has declared the provincial education department’s additional chief secretary, Dr Fazalullah Pechuho, a major hindrance in the way of PPP-led projects for the betterment of education. Dr Pechuho, who happens to be a brother-in-law of PPP co-chairperson, Asif Ali Zardari, is considered a key figure in bureaucratic hierarchy of the provincial education department. Pir Mazhar told the media on Wednesday that projects worth billions of rupees that were expected to bring improvement in the status of education across the province were stalling due to the highhandedness of additional chief secretary since the previous tenure of the PPP. “The incumbent education minister, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, is failing to keep a check on the bureaucracy and its maneuverings,” he added. “He [Khuhro] should know that he is an empowered minister.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21^st, 2013.