Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi Ameer Monem Zafar on Saturday the future of Karachi’s students was at stake due to the Sindh government’s “incompetence”.
Addressing a press conference at the JI Karachi’s headquarters Idara Noor-e-Haq, he criticized the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) and the Pakistan Peoples Party government for allegedly jeopardizing the future of tens of thousands of Karachi students as the crises persisted in the shape of a chain of wrong decisions and mismanagement.
He said that the matriculation examinations had begun at a time when the future of Karachi’s students was at stake due to government incompetence. He said the controller of examinations had resigned just two to three days before the exams, and the board chairman’s secretary was temporarily appointed on “the basis of experience” alone.
He dubbed it “mocking education” that a person with no examination management experience had been made controller merely because he had spent 20 years at the board.
He said admit cards initially could not be downloaded, affecting 70 percent of students. Authorities then said manual admit cards would be issued, before eventually postponing the exam dates.
“You are punishing nearly 375,000 Karachi students for your incompetence, mismanagement and corruption,” he said, adding that most of the 520 examination centers lacked basic facilities such as water, electricity and benches.
He said Sindh’s Minister for Industries and the Board Department Ismail Rahoo had issued a notification on April 7 seeking an explanation as to why admit cards were not uploaded on time and who was responsible, with a report to be submitted within three days. “Those three days have passed, but no report has yet been made public,” he said.
Monem Zafar cited further examples of mismanagement, saying male students had reached centers designated for female candidates, while male teachers had been assigned duty at girls’ centers. He urged the Sindh government to “come to its senses” and stop gambling with the future of students, adding that drug dealing was also taking place in educational institutions.
On local government issues, he condemned “fascism” in the City Council under the patronage of mayor Murtaza Wahab, saying that JI’s deputy parliamentary leader Taimur Ahmed was assaulted.
He said the council was being run on falsehoods and resolutions were being passed through violating and bulldozing the floor.
He criticized the delay in forming council committees, saying they were established only after two years, while powers were still not being devolved to the grassroots level. He also noted that the Provincial Finance Commission Award had yet to be implemented.
He said Sindh Solid Waste Management Board had a budget of Rs43 billion, yet garbage was still not being collected, while the water corporation had Rs47 billion but the city’s sewerage lines remained in ruins.
He further said the KMC had a Rs55 billion budget, yet roads remained broken. He pointed out that despite Rs13 billion being spent on the Hub Canal project, more than half the city still lacked drinking water.
On recent diplomacy for de-escalation, the JI leader paid a rich tribute to Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts, which led to a ceasefire between the United States and Iran, with talks already begin.
He said various forces were trying to sabotage the negotiations, including “occupying Israel,” which, he said, carried out intense bombing in Lebanon a day earlier, killing nearly 2,000 people and destroying the infrastructure of the Lebanese capital, Beirut. He added that Israel had already killed thousands in Gaza, left hundreds of thousands injured, and created a severe food crisis.
