Pressing Concern: KP Assembly to debate on 4.7 Million Out of school Children

 APP

Peshawar: The KP Assembly speaker has accepted the motion tabled by MPA Mir Kalam Wazir to debate on 4.7 million out-of-school children in the province. A survey conducted by Benazir Income Support Programme 2021 notified the KP Assembly on Monday that 4.7 million children in the province, aged five to sixteen, are out-of-school with 2.9 million of them being girls.

This was stated by an independent MPA Mir Kalam Wazir in an adjournment motion, which was approved for discussion.  Out of 4.7 million children, one million belong to merged districts and 74.4 percent of them are girls and 38.5 percent are boys.

Source: Benazir Income Support Programme 2021 Survey

The Minister for Higher Education Kamran Bangash said that the provincial government has begun an enrolment drive in an effort to raise the province’s literacy rate. Later, Deputy Speaker Mahmood Jan put the motion to vote and the house admitted for debate. Similarly, KP Assembly also admitted a privilege motion of Nighat Yasmin Orakzai of PPP against the secretary of transport.

Nighat Orkazai said, “The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Employees of Transport Department Regularization of Service Act 2022 was passed by the provincial assembly on May 30, 2022but the provincial secretary transport is refusing to recognise it.”

She alleged that he has resisted and issued orders to the Director of Transportation on September 7, 2022, stating that the department’s employees would not be regularised despite the adoption of the act enacted by the house, which amounted to a violation of the privilege of the entire house. She emphasised that the motion should be submitted to the house’s privilege committee, and that the concerned secretary should be made OSD until the motion’s final ruling.

Minister for Transport Shah Muhammad asserted that the assembly is paramount and requested that the motion be put to a vote. The privilege motion was referred to the relevant house committee after receiving approval from the house.

Increasing Incidents of Sexual Abuse

The opposition benches expressed alarm about the province’s ongoing rise in the sexual abuse of girls and children. They urged that laws are made in the assembly but not put into effect. The government is now seriously threatened by the upheaval in the province.

“Despite assertions that it is the duty of the police to prevent incidents of sexual assaults, we have not succeeded in our objectives.” Nighat Orakzai said that children are sexually assaulted on routine basis. She referred the Badhber Peshawar incident on September 16, 2022, in which a 23-year-old woman was killed and her body was discovered in bushes three days later.

Rise in Murder & Kidnapping Incidents

The KP province receives daily reports of kidnapping and murder incidents. According to Nighat, “As many as 11 cases of kidnapping of women were reported in August and 16 children were abducted. Similar to this, 11 occurrences of rape were also reported in July, along with 17 cases of domestic violence and 32 cases of child sexual abuse.”

“MPA Shaukat Ali was attacked, and the perpetrators have not been traced till date. The Police Act has to be reviewed,” said Nighat. The government should take this matter seriously and implement reforms in the police, particularly in merging districts, according to Mir Kalam, who stated that it is the duty of the police to deal with these situations.

The news has been published on APP website and other media outlets and The PenPk.com