NO COMPROMISE ON EDUCATION & MERIT
I could clearly see at the time of taking oath that institutions in most sectors and their system were dilapidated. The situation was no different in the education sector. The issues had visibly piled up and there was no clue to make a start to solve them. I consulted various experts and decided to take practical steps to improve the standard of education in the state-run schools and colleges. In recent past, political and nepotism-based hiring had made a mockery of state-run educational institutes, to the extent that only a few students would get A-1 grades in schools throughout the city. The steps taken during the next two years helped revived some of the interest and confidence of the academics and there were seldom any ‘ghost’ teachers. In the third year, 2,000 students, both boys and girls, were able to attain A-1 grades in the same schools.
The Central Admission Policy (CAP) for intermediate colleges was introduced in 2000. Under this policy, a committee comprising senior college teachers were tasked with monitoring the whole process of admissions, ensuring that these will be based on merit, as per the given rules and regulations. The area-based zonal system for admissions had been abolished. This was a very useful step by Sindh government’s education department and it made intermediate admissions transparent to quite an extent. Irfanullah Marwat – newly appointed provincial education minister – seemed upset at CAP and he started to send me requests for transfer of different students from one college to the other. I contacted him and conveyed that the policy had been put in place in the city’s interest and that I had not done anything contrary to merit my entire life. I made it clear that there will be no transfer or new admission as per his assertions. He replied that the mayor has the powers to do so. I responded strictly that it was my mission to close such abuse of power. He felt insulted and in order to satisfy his ego, he issued a notification stating that college principals can transfer their students whenever and wherever they want.
I couldn’t tolerate the sabotaging of a good policy, so upon the advice of a senior journalist, I went to meet Gen. Tariq Wasim Ghazi. I first briefed him in detail about CAP and then told him about the minister and his notification. He also got upset about it and told me to ‘not worry’. The notification was reversed the next day. The learned minister had gotten so upset with me that he sent a notice to EDO Education Prof. Raees Alvi, asking him to not take orders from Nasim Siddiqui – who was working as my advisor on educational affairs. Neither he nor any other advisor of mine had any powers to issue directives to officers, and no officer ever complained about it either.
Establishment of new Colleges
As soon as Nasim Siddiqui began working as the educational coordinator, he pointed out the rise in the number of matriculation students each year, while intermediate colleges remained stagnant. The city government had 88 colleges under its command at the time. In view of the situation, four colleges were set up in the first year, eight in the second, and 10 each in the third and fourth years. The buildings of most of these colleges had been under construction. It is common for long-term delays to occur in projects once political figures announce them. The officers initiate projects and then they and the contractors collude and so, all involved make substantial money out of them. The situation is worse in case of Sindh and Balochistan. We were able to complete such projects rapidly because we had a whole team of skilled and sincere engineers of Pakistan Engineers Forum with us, as well as elected representatives who would point out the projects delayed for years.
We never let any obstacle take place in the issuance of funds for projects in the education and health sector, all thanks to Allah. However, the new institutes were unable to begin teaching due to a ban on the appointment of teachers and lack of approval for Sanctioned New Strength (SNE). In order to resolve the issue quickly, we asked senior teachers of different educational institutes to begin honorary teaching at the colleges. Thankfully, a lot of teachers agreed. We received some 450 applications and shortlisted 140 of them. These academics taught without any salary for an extended period of time. This development was the first of its kind in Karachi’s history. Thirty-two old colleges were equipped with new classrooms, auditoriums and laboratories worth millions, and computer labs were established in most colleges of the city.
Establishment of new technical institutes
The situation in the technical institutes was no different, regardless of that, those who wanted to enroll were plenty. We established nine mono-technical institutes in the suburbs. Seeing the encouraging results of the practical steps for education and educational institutes, high-ups of major institutes also began to facilitate the students, and the need for buses topped the list.
The tradition of providing buses to the institutes was initiated by former mayor Abdul Sattar Afghani, which was continued later on. After becoming the mayor, I began to receive applications for buses. Though the applications were plenty, we provided two luxury buses to Karachi University and one each to Government College of Technology (SITE) and Sir Syed Girls College and Dawah Academy, Karachi campus, from the necessity point of view. When we began the uphill task of revamping the sector, we realized that the seemingly smaller issues weren’t as they appeared. Ironically, every problem had its own luggage which would drag along. This is endorsed by the condition that we found the 3,500 schools run by the erstwhile KMC in.
The parents would never have enrolled their children in those extremely substandard schools if they weren’t destitute and had alternatives to avail. The decline of state-run institutes was due to political appointments, and it wasn’t easy to suddenly bring such a large number of schools in order. The first budget of city government had a 31 percent allocation for education, which was in billions. We abolished tuition fee with an aim to lessen the financial burden on parents, and, going one step ahead, planned to provide free-of-cost books to boys (classes 1 to 5) and girls (1 to 8). It was common for the education department’s staff to sell the books provided under state-run schemes, and only a few would landed where they were supposed to. A committee was formed to counter corruption, monitor the distribution process and revive confidence.
This body comprised education department’s officers, Union Council nazims from the City Council and men and women councilors. A scholarship was also introduced for the girl students of state-run schools to encourage them, and dozens of schools were upgraded from primary to lower secondary and lower secondary to secondary, based on rules & regulations and performance. Several prominent schools were upgraded to higher secondary, where the students began to receive education until intermediate. Many well-wishers used to urge me to focus on the educational and ideological learning of the teachers, besides building, expanding and beautifying schools. As a matter of fact, this sort of training is a must from day one. We eventually decided to begin the training from the very initial classes. The parents would routinely opt for private schools because of lack of nursery, Montessori and KG classes in the state-run schools, so we began with introducing pre-primary classes in all the schools. We collaborated with Jamiat Taleem-ul-Quran (Trust) to impart Quranic education with tajweed (perfecting the reciting) to 2,000 male and female teachers in three phases. After consulting experts in their respective subjects, we chose 500 teachers for their advanced, professional training. They were invited to Government Comprehensive High School, North Nazimabad by the district officer to enroll in the Professional Development Training Program. EDO, Gul Mohamad Hajano got upset about it for unknown reasons as he told the principal to not open the gate for the trainees. When I found out about it, I decided to make a surprise visit to the school. He may have found out about my planned visit so he refrained from creating further hurdles. Lastly, a two-day principals’ training program was held at Markaz-e-Quran and Sunnah (Al-Markaz e Islami, Federal B. Area) under the auspices of Islami Nizamat-e-Taleem. It was participated by 350 male and female teachers of the city district government and 1,400 representatives of the private educational institutes of Karachi and interior Sindh.
At one point, Ms. Daniyal Aziz – herself associated with the sector – trained the staff responsible for teaching younger children. We regularly held debate competitions in collaboration with Nazriya-e-Pakista Foundation at city government’s educational institutes to establish the concept of Pakistan’s ideology in the minds of young boys and girls. Also, Lahore and Karachi were declared ideological sister cities. This happened when I visited Lahore on the foundation’s invitation and met city nazim Mian Amir Mehmood. We released an official notification to prohibit events in the schools that were inappropriate or against the country’s ideology, and appointed counselors in order to ensure that the notification is acted upon. As we continued to equip educational institutes with decent facilities, some high-ups of the department remained on the lookout for corruption. Once, an inter board chairman convened a meeting regarding the school management committee (SMC).
These committees were formed to boost the system of schools and colleges. Every committee – comprising a principal, parents, nazims and councilors – was provided Rs4000 per classroom in 2002 and Rs167 per student in 2003 so they could carry out the routine development work, buy furniture, beautify the building, appoint cooperative teachers and take other steps on their own. During the meeting, he handed a list of projects to all the EDOs Education and told them to submit bills in the name of the contractor. I somehow found out that the projects were on paper only. I asked the secretary to immediately issue a notice to not approve any SMC without mine or the DCO’s approval. The said chairman got really upset when he found out about the intervention. In a similar incident, an EDO Education sought to distribute computers meant for the labs in schools. He even contacted some suppliers on his own. I then received complaints from some of the principals that their signatures had been taken but they had not been handed the computers. I sought all the computers meant for distribution in trucks at the Civic Center and asked the headmasters to get 10 computers each as per their share. There were many such attempts but we were able to overcome them to a great extent due to the unending support from Nasim Siddiqui, City Councilor Rehana Afroze and her fellow women councilors. Bordering Sharah-e-Pakistan in block-7, Federal B. Area stood a marvelous building since the 80s. It was owned by the city’s municipality and built on the advice of Jamaat-e-Islami leader and former councilor KMC, Akhlaq Ahmad sahib and named Al-Markaz e Islami.
Akhlaq sahib wanted to see the institution as a standard Islamic, traditional and cultural center, and he and mayor Afghani had taken immense interest towards this, all the way from acquiring the land to the construction. Unfortunately, neither Afghani sahib’s successor Farooq Sattar, nor any administrator completed the project. As I became the mayor, I visited the center and ordered its renovation. Saif-ur-Rehman Grami – senior officer of the community development department, Abdul Rasheed Baig, Ansar Razi and Qazi Sadruddin were with me. At the auditorium, Grami sahib showed us more than a dozen pieces of calligraphy made on marmoreal by renowned Asian artist Sadequain. These were priceless! I issued directives for the purchase of high-quality chairs and installation of chiller plant in order to use the long-delayed center for its destined cause. Once equipped with basic amenities, the building hosted several educational and training events, including a one-time taraweeh prayers. Naib qayyim JI, Karachi Engr. Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman mesmerized the participants with his recitation.
We wanted to set up a Markaz-e-Quran and Sunnah at the building; an independent department operating under a governing body and carrying out research and compilation as its main tasks. To materialize it, I spoke with Abu Ahmad Akif – Chief Instructor, Nipa and former additional commissioner of the city. Mustafa Kamal, my successor, didn’t continue with the project for certain reasons. He either didn’t want to dent MQM’s secular image or it might not be among his priorities.A tragic day of January, 2003 left us all saddened. To add context, Faizanullah Khan – an active nazim of Gulberg Town’s UC 7 – Water Pump and one of the key nazims of Al-Khidmat Group – had ties with other political activists too and he believed in serving everyone indiscriminately. He had also previously served as the naib qayyim of JI district central, along with Dr Meraj-ul-Huda.
On January 15, MQM’s unit in-charge Salman came to UC office with two other people. According to Faizanullah, Salman was in constant touch with him and being married now, he wanted to part ways with MQM. Naib UC nazim Liaquat Ali Khan and some councilors were also there at the time. When Salman and his friends exited the office, terrorists who had set up an ambush opened fire at them. Hearing the gunshots, Faizanullah and others rushed outside where they found all three of them severely wounded. They were moved to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital in Liaquat Ali Khan’s car where Faizanullah got made a medicolegal report and submitted a copy of his CNIC. Two of them succumbed to their injuries, while the third survived.
By punishing a unit in-charge who wanted to part ways with them, MQM conveyed to a lot of people that there was no peaceful way of departing the mafia-like group. The UC office was torched the next day and Faizanullah got booked for double murder. An innocent elected representative was sent behind bars, away from his family and the people of his constituency for an entire year for a crime he didn’t commit. He was later set free by a court. After his release, I appointed Faizanullah as my coordinator to see the water board’s affairs, which he fulfilled well along with his remaining tenure as the UC nazim.
