Daily Times

Parliamentarians from government and opposition benches in the National Assembly on Monday urged to demonstrate unanimity on all major national issues to send a clear message to the enemies of the country.

They said this while participating in the discussion in the National Assembly on President of Pakistan’s address to both houses assembled together on August 20, 2020 and expressing their deep gratitude to the President on this address.

Minister for Federal Education, Professional Training, National Heritage and Culture, Shafqat Mehmmod said “Performance of any sitting government also matters as if any government fails to deliver during a long ruling period then this makes a bad impression of the country in the international world.”

He said, “Ill-practices of our past governments compelled the nation to think negatively about our political system.” He added unfortunately past governments did nothing for the nation but they remained busy for petty gains.

He questioned, “Why do opposition parties avoid confessing their active role in all wrong-doings in politics in the past. They were actually responsible for making the country a financially and politically weak country.”

Shafqat Mehmood said that it is a fact that the elite class had captured the politicians in the past to support their own businesses. This fact should also be accepted by the members from opposition parties who enjoyed past governments that personal agenda was their actual target.”

He said, “This is true that everyone had the responsibility to play their due role in strengthening the Parliament rather than supporting only rich people, which unfortunately happened in past governments.”

Sharing details about measures taken in the education sector in the aftermath of COVID-19 situation, the minister said,”We had to make tough decisions in hard situations on the mutual understanding of all provinces and Azad Jammu and Kashmir to maintain education standard and students’ interest in the Corona situation.”

He said that all education ministers of federal and provincial level had decided to conduct examinations this year. There were several reasons behind this decision as this method was the only way to judge the capability of any student.

Shafqat added, “Earlier we had previous results to judge but this time we don’t have previous results so exams were compulsory.”

He said that to facilitate the students, the syllabus was reduced to 40 percent. He added earlier examinations were held in February or March but the present government in consultation with the provinces delayed the exams and planned to hold in July to give more time to students for preparation.

Shafqat said that with this decision students got six weeks time for exams preparation while it was decided to have exams on only four subjects while three subjects in FA/FSc.

“There is a cycle for examinations in the education system like admission after results. Keeping in view all these things and to avoid students from future troubles, it was decided to fix the exams date in July along with other major relief.”

He said that there were several other objectives to be gained from the holding of these exams.

He added, unfortunately, opposition parties started campaigns against this decision on social media with an objective to create a fiction on the situation to mislead the students and parents.

He made it clear that out of 30 boards, the federal government has only one board. He added after the 18th amendment we have no right to make decisions on behalf of provincial boards, which are running under provinces.

“We made all decisions with mutual understanding and without considering any political affiliation.” He condemned this type of politics and asked opposition parties to avoid politicizing this serious matter.

He added, “If anyone needs more time than any student can avail time in supplementary exam, which is held after three month.” He said that 95 percent of students were participating in these examinations.

Participating in the discussion, Khawaja Muhammad Asif from Pakistan Muslim League (N) said that a united nation can only safeguard the country in present situation arising from the international politics.

He warned “If we fail to make joint efforts, a crisis situation is likely to prevail and we as a nation will have to face the worst situation.” He said that the situation is alarming and we need to make political coordination to manage all these things.

He said that all parliamentarians should truly represent their voters and play a fruitful role in the parliament. He said that it is the responsibility of every politician to empower democratic institutions of the country.

Raja Pervaiz Ashraf from Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) said that all political parties want to have strong democratic institutions of the country. He added there is a history of sacrifices of political parties to strengthen the democracy in the country.

Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser expressed his desire from both benches to initiate professional and technical discussions in the parliament for overall understanding on key issues like electoral or judicial reforms etc. “We will sit together to discuss things to have such discussions in the parliament,” the speaker added.