Newly-sworn-in mayor of Sukkur Barrister Arsalan vowed on Thursday that emergency should be declared in education sector which also needed more investment. "Without attaining highest literacy rate, Pakistanis cannot achieve the status of developed, modern and civilised nation and for that we need to pay more attention to education sector," he expressed these views talking to the media persons at the mausoleum of founder of Pakistan Mohammad Ali Jinnah where he visited after taking oath as mayor. His deputy mayor Tariq Chohan accompanied him.
Barrister Arsalan said that according to the UNICEF's statistics, 24 million children aged between 5-16 years were out of schools while 6.1 million children of primary level didn't have access to schools and of them the girls ratio counted to two-fifth.
He said that the soft image of Pakistan at the international level could not be established unless we focus on school system and bring all the out-of-school children to school. He pledged as mayor of Sukkur he would make all out efforts for enrolment of out-of-school children in schools for which he had full backing of his party and its chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
Barrister Arsalan appealed to the people, NGOs, schools managements to share their expertise with him so that he could make this dream come true. He said he was well aware of the problems of the people of Sukkur. He vowed that despite limited resources he would bring in positive and constructive changes with the cooperation of the people.