The Senate on Thursday voiced concerns over the grim national literacy situation, as Pakistan was just ahead of Afghanistan in terms of its literacy while all other regional countries were much ahead of it. Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mehmood told the House during question-hour that Pakistan and Bhutan have the same 57 percent literacy rate.
He regretted that during last 60 to 70 years due attention was not paid to education and the respective governments had showed total indifference and negligence in this context. He described the index of literacy as incorrect, which says that a person, who can read a newspaper or write a letter, is marked literate.
He pointed out that the other countries had increased their literacy rate, but Pakistan had gone backward from 60 percent to 58 percent, given the increase in population and insufficient academic resources in proportion to it. He said that it has been a massive failure of the governments over the past years who completed ignored the very important issue.
In the written reply to House, the minister noted that during the last 10 years while Pakistan could increase literacy rate from 50 percent in 2008 to 57 percent in 2017-18, Bangladesh had achieved phenomenal success by increasing its literacy rate from 47 percent to 73 percent during this period. He said that India took its literacy rate from 61 percent to 69 percent during this period, Iran from 82 percent to 85 percent, Nepal from 49 percent to 60 percent, Maldives from 96 percent to 99 percent, Bhutan from 54 percent to 57 percent and Afghanistan from 28 percent 32 percent. Interestingly, Sri Lanka's literacy rate remained stagnant during this period that is 91 percent.
The minister said that the government was presently working on an education policy framework and gearing up for emergency measures to increase literacy by at least 10-15 percent in five years. He said a number of strategies and plans were being thrashed out while some were already for launching. He said that the government intended to offer incentives for the adults, who would e imparted education and the teachers as well, who could be an intermediate student.
He further said that with the consultations with the provinces the subject social work needed to be made mandatory, envisaging imparting basic education to adults. However, the senators including Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah, Usman Kakar and Samina Saeed, while speaking on the subject, expressed their deep concern over the low literacy rate and asked the government to pay special attention to the matter.
Replying to a question by Senator Chaudhry Tanvir, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi informed the House that Afghan government did not share information about the number of Pakistanis in their detention due to peculiar security situation there. However, on the government's persistent demand, for consular access to Pakistani detainees in Pul-e-Charkhi jail in Kabul and Bagram Detention centre, Afghan government arranged a 'guided tour' for the Pakistan embassy officials to Bagram Detention Centre, earlier this year.
He said that Pakistani authorities were presented around 200 inmates in batches of 25-30, reported to be Pakistani nationals. "No individual interactions were allowed to ascertain the charges and the terms of sentences handed down to them. In group interactions, the inmates expressed general satisfaction about the conditions in the detention centre. Our officials however, demanded of Afghan authorities for provision of better facilities, especially medical and healthcare", he added. He said that Pakistan Embassy in Kabul arranged repatriation of 17 Pakistani prisoners released from Afghan jails from February to August in 2018 and from August to December, 2018, four Pakistani prisoners were freed and repatriated and another 23 Pakistani nationals were issued emergency travel document and were repatriated.
In reply to another query by Senator Mohsin Aziz, Qureshi said that a total of 62 Pakistanis were executed in Saudi Arabia on account of drug-related charges during the last five years while the number of Pakistanis jailed on charges of drug trafficking is 1764, amounting to 47 percent of total Pakistani prisoners in the Kingdom. Acting Chairman Senate Saleem Mandviwalla, who was presiding over the sitting, also referred a privilege motion to the House committee concerned which was moved by Senator Hasil Khan Bizenjo a day earlier.
He had cited media reports that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was preparing to take action against him for allegedly having purchased properties worth billions of rupees in Punjab when he was Minister for Ports and Shipping. The senator said this is tantamount to a media trial and offered the government to form a JIT on it.
The Senate also adopted a motion for giving authority to the Senate Chairman for nomination of six senators for the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in consultations with the Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition. He is empowered also to make changes in nominations as well. The motion was moved by Leader of the House in the Senate Shibli Faraz and Leader of the Opposition Raja Zafar ul Haq.
The chair referred the matter pertaining to grant of a total of 376 foreign scholarships to students from Balochistan, as Senators Usman Kakar and Mohammad Akram alleged that students from other provinces availed such opportunities by presenting fake documents, to the House committee concerned for deliberations and report. Raza Rabbani pointed out that the continued enforcement of Essential Services Act in Pakistan International Airline (PIA) which was imposed by the caretaker setup and asked the government to immediately withdraw the Act.
He said that the caretaker setup had imposed the Act on PIA which was tantamount to depriving the working class of their fundamental rights granted under the Constitution. On this, Leader of the House assured the house that the matter will be taken up with the management of the airlines.
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