Sindh Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq has sent Education Secretary Naheed Durrani, the daughter of Chief Minister (CM) Qaim Ali Shah, on a forcible two-month leave. A notification has been issued, but a new secretary has not been appointed. Sources told Pakistan Today that Haq had “used” some MPAs against Durrani; these MPAs went to Durrani’s father, CM Shah, with complaints that she was interfering with their “work.”
Haq and Durrani had been at odds since the past few months, with the secretary’s vision differing greatly from the minister’s. Sources told Pakistan Today that differences between the two started on the matter of 1,000 non-viable schools in the province – many of these schools either existed only on paper and not at the locations where they were supposed to be, or had zero enrolment. Durrani’s position was that a budget of Rs 600 million is released every year for these schools, but instead of diverting money towards them, funds should be spent on schools that really did operate so that their functioning could be made better.
Haq ordered printing advertisements in newspapers with the names of the non-functioning schools, sources said, but not a single person came forward to recognize them. “Most of the Rs 600 million was pocketed by bureaucrats in the Education Department, and these men were not prepared to abandon their kitty. It is for this reason that they handed false reports to the minister against the secretary,” sources claimed.
Another dispute was over setting up 16 colleges: Durrani had put her foot down on conducting a feasibility report before their establishment. She had insisted in her note on a summary prepared that a feasibility report is a must before these colleges can be approved.
In turn, Haq issued a statement terming her to be “an enemy of education.” A third sticking point was the critical report on the state of education in the province that Durrani presented on April 21 to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Sindh Assembly. She had argued that out of 50,000 government schools in the province, some 41,000 cannot be considered as proper educational institutions.
Durrani was also scathing in her assessment of teachers employed by the Education Department, as well as bureaucrats tasked with monitoring and improving the state of education in the province. She had said that out of a total of 260 colleges, some 100 colleges were functioning without staff.
The former education secretary had argued that most subject specialists, especially of Mathematics, English, and Physics, are either incompetent or irregular – this in turn produces graduates with little know-how of their subjects. She had also said that college administrators are appointed on political influence, without taking into account if they are suitably equipped or qualified. She also complained that political influence has made the bureaucrats, such as EDOs and ADEOs, either powerful or negligent.
