School tragedy
At a time when summer camps are in full swing at schools and other places across the country, the tragic death of a 12-year-old student as a result of drowning at a camp run by a private school in Lahore should make everyone, notably the authorities, think about key issues of safety and the monitoring of activities of private institutions. Though the details are still somewhat scanty, with the management of the school in question maintaining a silence, it would appear Suleman Manzoor Bhatti died as a result of criminal negligence. From what we know, boys in the pool were not properly supervised. Worse still, no one at the institution seems to have been familiar with CPR. By the time the child was taken to a hospital he was already dead and, in an act of gross insensitivity, his parents were not informed till his mother came to collect him from school.
Yes, accidents occur. Some may indeed be no one’s fault. However, that is not always the case. Proper safety precautions, the hiring of trained staff and recognition of the need to put safety – not profit – first can prevent such mishaps. Schools and other institutions taking care of children need to exercise particular responsibility. Sadly this is not the case at present. Privately-run institutions are largely able to do as they please, exploiting parents who only want the best they can afford for their children. An enquiry has been initiated into this incident and it is hoped those responsible are not be allowed to get away scot-free. The explanation offered so far – that this was an ‘accident’ – is not enough. A proper follow-up is important to prevent other similar tragedies.
Success story
The remarkable success story of the Sharif brothers continues. A day after his elder brother took the office of prime minister, Mian Shahbaz Sharif was voted in – by a huge majority of the 341 members who have taken oath in Punjab – to serve as chief minister of the province for a record third time. He claimed 300 votes as the assembled house split into lobbies, with only 34 going to his rival from the PTI. The PPP had opted to stay out of the poll. The massive margin of victory for Shahbaz Sharif was largely anticipated, and cheers rang out in the Punjab Assembly even before the speaker had read out the results of the counting. Besides possessing experience in running the affairs of the country’s largest province, Shahbaz Sharif, this time round, comes in backed by a huge majority and faces none of the hurdles he did during his last stint in the same office, when a hostile governor and threats of in-house change frequently thwarted his efforts. Many hope that the decisive mandate he and his party received on May 11 will also enable him to act from a position of real strength. People in Punjab, notably Lahore, will be hoping that the projects initiated by the PML-N government will now be successfully completed.
In his first speech to the new Punjab Assembly, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif stressed his desire to improve things as quickly as possible, speaking especially of the power crisis that has become the main concern of tens of thousands of people scattered across a province currently experiencing up to 12 hours or more of loadshedding every day. The pledge to do all that can be done to overcome the situation will undoubtedly go down well with the people of Punjab. The chief minister will also be supported by the centre. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has already called a meeting to discuss the energy crisis. The fact that this time the federal and Punjab governments will be working in tandem, with the Sharif brothers expected to work together, should certainly stand us in good stead and help improve administrative capacity. For now at least, the massive vote in favour of Shahbaz appears to have injected a new element of optimism in the people. CM Shahbaz Sharif will now need to demonstrate that he is able to deliver and offer people the competent leadership they yearn for and which has so far been denied to them.
Education follies
Pakistan is a country starved of educational facilities at every level, from the primary and most basic to universities and higher education generally. Successive governments have failed to prioritise the educational needs of the nation and the poverty of the education system matches the poverty of the common man. It now emerges that the last government has left as many as 40 universities, many of them in far-flung areas and established in the last five years, in desperate financial straits. Not only did the last government cut the allocation for higher education, it also rejected a staggering 95 percent of development projects presented by the universities – a major contribution to their spiral of decline. They struggle to pay their staff salaries, are unable to fund research or equip laboratories and libraries and some run the risk of closure in the near future. If that happens opportunity will be snatched from the grasp of young people in places as far apart as Gilgit, Swat, Bahawalnagar and Rahim Yar Khan, making a travesty of any promise that was made.
Eight percent of the population of Pakistan has access to higher education compared to 12 percent in Bangladesh and 18 percent in India. During the last tenure 72 public sector universities made requests for allocations of 350 development projects none of which were beyond the bounds of being perfectly reasonable, but 334 were turned down and 16 approved. Funds that should have been used to bolster the higher education sector were diverted for political reasons, with former PM Raja Pervaiz Ashraf directing billions away from the universities for his pet road-building projects. Over five years the PPP government allocated Rs87.08 billion for higher education but only released Rs66.94 billion. Standards set by the UN recommend that the budget for higher education should not be less than a quarter of the total budget. In Pakistan it is less than one-tenth. Pakistan now has a new prime minister who has a lot on his plate. The power crisis may be paramount but the education crisis runs it a close second. The country needs to hear a loud, clear and unequivocal message from PM Nawaz Sharif – there must be education for all, no more raiding of education budgets and a lifeline thrown to our universities before we start losing them.