ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Federal Education and Professional Training, in a meeting held on Thursday at Parliament House stressed the need to remove all injustices from the system and ensure that the men and women who serve academia in this country are held in high regard and are ensured their rights.

This statement was made while discussing issuance of notification for appointment/posting of junior lady teachers at Islamabad Model College. Chairman Committee Senator Irfan-ul-Haq Siddiqui, while reviewing the matter and while hearing out the teachers present at the meeting said that this is a criminal practice and all out efforts must be made to curb this custom stringently.

While negating the remarks of Director FDE who termed the teachers his daughters, Chairman Committee Senator Irfan-ul-Haq Siddiqui said that the story would have been completely different had this ‘truly’ been the case. He further added that if director FDE meant what he said the teachers in question would not have been left to struggle, for years, on their own. It was heartrending to see that some teachers had been serving on daily wages since the past 15 years without proper compensation for their services.

Irfan-ul-Haq Siddiqui directed FPSC to regularize the said teachers at the earliest and submit an implementation report within 15 days. He also asserted that all pending dues must be cleared within a week.

While considering the International Islamic University (Amendment) Bill, 2023 the committee after reviewing the reservations put forward by the HEC, recommended that the commission may sit with the Mover, Senator Mushtaq Ahmed and review the Bill in detail.

Reviewing the International Institute of Technology, Culture and Health Sciences Bill, 2022 the Committee approved the Bill conditionally, thereby after a formal report from the HEC will be presented to the House.

The Al-Ala University Bill, 2022 was deferred until requirements lined out by HEC are fulfilled. The Committee lauded the stance of the HEC and stated that once requirements are fulfilled, it must ensure that the matter is facilitated. Scrutinizing the Public Sector Development Projects (PSDP) proposed by the Ministry of Federal Education the Committee was informed of the various projects taken up by the PSDP including ongoing ones.

Irfan-ul-Haq Siddiqui was of the view that the ministry instead of moving on to new projects must focus on completing on-going ones so that time and money is not wasted. He asserted that the ministry must exert caution while developing programs to ensure it caters to under-served sections for maximum impact. The committee strongly supported programs related to women’s development and child nutrition.

Chaired by Senator Irfan-ul-Haq Siddiqui, the meeting was attended by Senator Rukhsana Zuberi, Senator Dr. Mehr Taj Roghani, Senator Fawzia Arshad, Senator Rana Maqbool Ahmed, Senator Jam Mahtab Hussain Dahar, Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan, Senator Sarfraz Ahmad Bugti, Senator Kamran Murtaza, Senator Hafiz Abdul Karim and senior officers of the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training and HEC.