Anti Corruption campaign in Major Institutes
This news report was published in Nidai Millat dated July 11,2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Punjab’s education success story
Punjab’s education success story
“One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world. Education is the only solution. Education first.” So ended Malala Yousufzai’s rousing speech before the UN Youth Assembly on July 12. Malala voiced a call to action to fulfil the universal right to education for every child. With 40 million out of 70 million Pakistani children aged five to 19 not attending school, Pakistan is performing poorly in this regard. Given this, it rightly seems that we have mountains to climb before we can educate all our children.
But this is not a column about how dismal things look, about how our government is inefficient, and how our citizenry is unmotivated. It is about the steps that are being taken in the right direction, especially in Punjab. Here is a look at some of the “good news” from Punjab’s education sector, as Sir Michael Barber, Department for International Development’s (DFID) special representative for education in Pakistan, describes it. Due to a number of interventions, which are part of a larger reform road map, teacher presence and student attendance numbers have shown impressive increases in Punjab. Both the percentages of teachers present and of already enrolled students attending class were greater than 92 per cent in December 2012, up from 72 per cent and 82 per cent in September 2011, respectively. The percentage of schools with functioning facilities has also increased from 69 per cent to 91 per cent in the same time frame. Enrolment has seen increases for the five-to-nine-year age range, but most of these come from kachi (or kindergarten classes) and do not yet extend all the way through primary school. While some areas in Punjab have laudably passed the 90 per cent enrolment mark, others, such as rural areas and southern Punjab, as well as girls’ schools, clearly lag behind. In addition, students are learning more. The latest Annual Status of Education Report, which assessed over 60,000 children from all Punjab districts, reveals significant gains in learning outcomes for both literacy and numeracy. Clearly, there is much more work to be done, but the above indicators show progress.
A number of policy innovations, fostered by the DFID and led by the Punjab government, have made these developments possible. Greater monitoring of schools has been instrumental in improving teacher presence. This has been made possible by the tireless work done by a revamped programme monitoring and implementation unit. Also key is the Punjab Education Foundation, which enables poor children to attend low-cost private schools for free. There is also the Punjab Educational Endowment Fund (PEEF), established in 2009 to provide merit-based scholarships and assistance in the 16 less-developed districts in Punjab. It has awarded over 41,000 scholarships, worth over Rs2 billion.
A number of government policies specifically target girls and young women. Under the Punjab Education Sector Reform Programme, annual cash stipends worth Rs1.5 billion are provided to 380,000 girls in grades six to 10 in government schools, in 16 out of the 36 Punjab districts. The objective is to improve enrolment and increase retention. The beneficiary girls are given Rs2,400 a year conditional on an 80 per cent attendance rate.
Some of Punjab’s policies and successes will be replicable and some will need to be adapted for the other provinces. The DFID is providing its second-largest funding to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa with the expectation that some of these successes can be reproduced there. Balochistan is implementing a programme similar to the PEEF, in a good example of inter-provincial policy learning.
All of the above implies that Punjab is making strides in solving the access issue and in increasing the quantity of education supplied, at least at the primary level. But what about the quality of education? There are serious issues with our curricula and in our textbooks, as well as in how we expect our students to learn from these materials. While it appears that the 2006 curriculum reform recommendations have been incorporated in Punjab’s latest textbooks, there is no analysis yet of the quality of these textbooks. Over the next few weeks, I will be undertaking exactly that task.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 21st, 2013.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/579652/punjabs-education-success-story/
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
NewsUpdates on Railway
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Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Editorial Daily Waqt Lahore
Govt's Measures to reduce Load-shedding
Published in Daily Waqt, Lahore dated July 16, 2013
http://www.dailywaqt.com/07-16-2013/images/04_01.gif#sthash.yqwxRGCB.dpuf
Nawaz Sharif hopes to end power crisis during his tenure
FAISALABAD: Condemning gas theft taking place across Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to stop such corrupt practices in the country and hoped to end the current power crisis during his present tenure.
The premier was speaking to the business community of Faisalabad on Monday.
Nawaz said that gas theft takes place with the help of people working in the gas companies, adding that his government will punish the perpetrators.
He further asked the nation to be patient as it will take at least few years to fix the electricity problem.
The prime minister said his government has taken the right direction and people will see the difference in coming years.
While speaking to the businessmen, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said the government will ensure that Faisalabad gets 14 hours of gas supply from January onwards.
He reiterated the premier’s stance on gas theft and said stopping others from stealing the national resource was his first priority.
Electricity Production
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Monday that load shedding will decrease considerably in the coming months owing to a number of short projects initiated by the government, Radio Pakistan reported.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the 84 mega watt New Bong Escape Hydropower Project in Mirpur, he said projects undertaken to increase electricity production are long term ventures but since Pakistan has abundant water resources, the government will seek to utilize them optimally.
Nawaz said that a number of Chinese investors are working on energy projects in Pakistan, which when completed will help reduce the power crisis.
He further added that the Bong project would create economic opportunities for people in Azad Kashmir.
Nawaz assured foreign investors of assistance and cooperation.
He added that a one-window operation would be launched to facilitate investors.
Mills raided
PM Nawaz and Shahbaz visited a mill in Faisalabad that was involved in annual gas theft worth Rs0.2 billion, Express News reported.
The Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) recently started an operation against gas theft and had raided multiple commercial mills and factories.
The mill in Faisalabad was also raided as a part of this operation and was fined a total of Rs0.11 billion.
The SNGPL head briefed the premier and chief minister today about the raids conducted by the gas company.
A case was filed against the owner of the mill and all the equipment used for gas supply was seized.
Express News also reported that a mill in Multan – involved in gas theft worth Rs0.12 billion – was raided.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/577158/pm-nawaz-punjab-cm-visit-faisalabad-mill-involved-in-gas-theft/
Minorities pin hopes on PML-N for improved representation
Minorities pin hopes on PML-N for improved representation
ISLAMABAD: It was during the fag end of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government when a bill was tabled to increase the number of seats in the National Assembly for the minority communities to enhance their representation in the House from the existing 10 to 14 seats on proportionate basis.
The mover of the Bill was Akram Gill and the reason behind increasing the number of reserved seats in the National Assembly was that the existing number of seats, i.e. 10, was not in proportion with the number of total seats in House.
It was demanded in the Bill that the number of seats reserved for the minority communities in the National Assembly should be raised to 14, corresponding with the existing number of seats in the House on a proportionate basis.
The Central President of the Minority Wing of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI), Sajid Ishaq, said that this is high time for Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif to fulfil his promise that he had made with the minority communities during his election campaign and bring up the bill in the National Assembly.
“With such a thumping majority in the House and with all the support being extended by the like-minded and opposition parties on matters of national importance it should be very easy for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to fulfil this one promise that he has made with the minority communities of Pakistan and tuck a feather in the cap of PML-N government,” Sajid Ishaq said. The bill was tabled by Akram Gill in October 2012 and voting was scheduled to be held in February 2013. There was an unwritten consensus on the Bill and it seemed, at that time, that it will have a smooth passage in both the Houses, the National Assembly as well as the Senate, because it was not opposed nor any objections were raised against it when it was tabled.
“It was really disappointing and frustrating for the representative of minority communities in the House because the Bill could not be taken up for voting only because of lack of required quorum every time the House was in session!” Sajid Ishaq pointed out.And eventually the National Assembly completed its tenure with the move was put on pending agenda, to be taken up by the new government.
He said that now the representatives of the minority communities are looking up to the PML-N government, particularly towards Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, who, during his election campaign, had vociferously announced to protect the rights of minority community and giving them due share in the government.
Sajid Ishaq pointed out that the number of seats for the minority community in the National Assembly was raised to 10, which at that time was in proportion with the number of seats in the House. “Since the number of seats in the House were increased, as such it was very pertinent that the number of seats for the minority communities should also have been increased proportionately,” he added.
“We demand of the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the government of the PML-N to take up the Bill for enhanced representation of the minority communities in proportion with the strength of the House and increase the number of reserved seats from existing 10 to 14 as has been suggested in the Bill tabled during the last government,” Sajid Ishaq said.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-190026-Minorities-pin-hopes-on-PML-N-for-improved-representation
Monday, July 8, 2013
News Report | PM's recent visit to CHINA
PM's recent visit to CHINA
This news report was published in Daily Jang, Dated July 08,2013
Interview | Raja Ishfaq Sarwar
Raja Ishfaq Sarwar
This interview was published in Daily Jang dated July 08, 2013.
Column | Ansar Abbasi
Good Governance of Shahbaz Sharif (2008-13)
This column was published in daily Express, dated February 14, 2013
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Interview
Kanwal Nauman
This interview was published in the Sunday magazine of daily WAQT dated June 23, 2013
Interview | Khawaja Sad Rafique
First Interview as Railway Minister
Published in Weekly Nidai Millat dated 04-10 July, 2013
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