Ashiq could not be granted bail because he was arrested four months back and evidence had been presented in court, he added. The victim’s father had filed the petition seeking the cancellation of Ashiq’s bail. The father had lodged a case alleging that Ashiq had abducted his seven-year-old daughter Kayanat on June 11, 2005, and raped her in Shah Khawar Town.
EDUCATION
Education Free for One Child Families
The government has decided that it will pay for the education up to age 18 of single-child families, Population Minister said in a program on Pakistan Television on June 14.
He said that the budget offered a lot of incentives for the parents who followed the population welfare policies of the government. He said he would visit the Northern Areas, AJK and FATA from July 15 to make the ongoing population welfare campaign more effective and result-oriented. He said that the government had a political commitment to control population and provide a better standard of living, adding that the high population growth was seriously affecting government efforts to provide people with health cover, education, housing, jobs and foodstuff. He said the government was committed to bridging the gap between resources and the population. “We should educate and teach people that a small family can prosper in a better way.”
Pakistan Has Lowest Enrolment Rates
Pakistan is ranked among the lowest in the world in terms of higher education enrolment rates, standing at merely 2.9%, according to statistics revealed in the steering committee for higher education on June 21. India and South Korea stand at 10% and 68% respectively.
At the same time, the quality of education provided is not up to the mark, which can be gauged from the fact that not a single Pakistani university is ranked among the top 500 universities of the world, the report says. Public expenditure on education as a percentage to GDP is lowest in Pakistan compared to other countries of South Asian region. Pakistan spends only 2.1 % of its GDP on education compared to India, which spends 4.1%, Bangladesh 2.4% and Nepal 3.4%.
According to the Little green data book 2006 launched by the World Bank, education, which is of paramount importance for human resource development, is the most neglected area in Pakistan. There are about 20 million children between five and nine years of age. But only about half of them are currently enrolled in primary schools. And little girls make up much less than half of that number, according to the figures.
Government Shelves Sex Education Plan
The Punjab government has shelved its plan to start sex education and reproductive health classes at the school and college level for fear of a backlash by clerics.
Senior officials of the Punjab government said the government had almost finalized suggestions to the federal government for the inclusion of sex education and reproductive health in its education curriculum, to deal with increasing population by creating awareness among the youth. Provincial Coordination Committee on Population Welfare had been working on the issue since August 2005.
The committee was on the verge of finalizing the grade from which sex education would be imparted to the students. The government had feared the backlash of “extremists and religious elements” as the main hindrance to the project. Clerics had reacted sharply to the distribution of a questionnaire on sex education by the Aga Khan Foundation in parts of the country a few months ago, they said. The government thus abandoned the project for fear of a similar reaction on the issue, they said.
30,000 Ghost Schools in Pakistan
As many as 30,000 ghost schools exist in Pakistan which draw regular funding from the public kitty, said a report prepared by the Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan in April.
According to the report Using local government ordinance 2001 to enhance transparency in education due to lack of transparency and public monitoring, the funds are not used equitably and need-based. Instead, it is mostly politicized, depriving the schools in relatively poor and backward areas of necessary facilities.
“Today, there are 22,755 schools (16.75%) without shelter, 61,383 (39%) without drinking water, 96,708 (62%) without electricity, 76,312 (49%) institutions without toilet facilities and 71,681 (46%) schools have no boundary walls,” the survey notes.
“Recruitment of teachers and other staff members is very often political which ends up in recruitment of incompetent and low-quality human resources. Similarly, transfers of teachers are not done on merit but on the basis of connections and political influence.” Embezzlement of public funds is a major problem, but due to secrecy and lack of public accountability, this corrupt practice could not be rooted out.
HEALTH
Inject her Poison if you have No Vaccine
‘Bakht Zada of Takht Bai was extremely upset and asked the local quack to inject his eight-year-old daughter with poison to save his other children from being infected with rabies from his daughter, who had been bitten by a stray dog.
The ill-fated little girl was playing with her friends, when a stray dog bit her. The parents took her to the Rural Health center for vaccination against rabies. But there were no anti-rabies vaccine in the center. After returning disappointed from a hospital in Mardan, the parents turned to the religious cure of ‘dam and Taweez’.
The girl’s condition began to deteriorate and she started scratching and biting. To save his other children, the distraught father went to a local quack and asked him to give his ailing daughter poison and kill her. Unavailability of anti-rabies vaccine is a serious issue in NWFP but the health managers are least pushed about the consequences of failing to provide such vital and life saving vaccines and other medical facilities.
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KARACHI, Oct 27: Parents of 18-year-old Tasleem Solangi, who was killed in an extremely inhumane manner allegedly by some elders of her tribe, have appealed to President and Sindh Chief Minister to provide them protection as “killers are still at large and have not been arrested because of their connections with police”.
