ISLAMABAD: A Senate committee on Tuesday showed its concerns and displeasure over derogatory remarks about Pakhtuns in an O level Urdu book.

The Senate Standing Committee on Education met with Senator Bushra Anjum Butt in the chair and discussed the matter in detail.

The committee was told that action had been taken to ban the book, and the author had submitted a written apology.

Senator Bilal Ahmed Khan expressed frustration over the book’s continued availability.

The chairperson of the committee emphasised the federal government’s role in overseeing educational content and called for the publisher and author to attend the next meeting.

She said such content promoted hate speech and negatively impacted children, recommending that the Ministry of Education issue a directive to all provinces to withdraw the book.

This action, she stated, would serve as a warning to other writers and publishers against harmful content.

The chairperson also recommended that the author must provide explanations, offer an apology and be held accountable in the next meeting.

The issue was raised by Senator Bilal Ahmed Khan during the Senate sitting on October 18.

The house had referred it to the committee. Earlier, the committee emphasised the need for timely allocation of funds for HEC’s International Research Support Initiative Programme (IRSIP), noting that a final decision was anticipated by the end of December.

Currently, the reviews of 266 out of 515 candidates have been completed and the chairperson of the committee stressed the importance of documenting the timeline to ensure results are released as scheduled.

The meeting also addressed a calling attention notice from Senators Aimal Wali Khan and Hidayatullah Khan regarding the hunger strike of academic and teaching staff at Balochistan University due to unpaid salaries.

Senator Hidayatullah stressed the need to allocate 4pc of GDP to education, given the deteriorating state of education in Balochistan.

The HEC chairman agreed, noting that insufficient funding for higher education had led to a reliance on private institutions and that poor governance had resulted in the appointment of acting vice chancellors.

Senator Bushra called for a policy change to ensure that acting vice chancellors do not have the same privileges as permanent ones and urged for a permanent VC to be appointed within a specified timeframe as universities suffered without stable leadership.

She also noted multiple complaints regarding issues caused by acting VCs when permanent VCs arrived.

Senator Bushra emphasised the importance of involving the planning and finance ministries in the matter, urging the committee to take a strong stance.

The secretary education discussed the oversight of departments with acting charges, including the director general of Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) and the chairman of the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE). He explained that instead of immediate recruitment the FDE was previously under a stay order, adding appointment was expected to be finalised within two weeks in line with legislative direction.

The committee was briefed on the recent recruitment process for teaching and non-teaching positions. The secretary said no non-teaching staff had been recruited and no complaints reached the DG.

He said for the first time in Pakistan the recruitment process included an examination based on guidelines from the Establishment Division and was conducted entirely on a merit basis.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2024