Pakistan lost its ‘angel of mercy’ Abdul Sattar Edhi

“Empty words and long praises do not impress God. Show Him your faith by your deeds.” Edhi

خدا کے عاشق تو ہیں ہزاروں بنوں میں پھرتے ہیں مارے مارے
میں اسکا بندہ بنوں گا جس کو خدا کے بندوں سے پیار ہو گا-

Angels in skies has received an angel from earth today.إِنَّا لِلّهِ وَإِنَّـا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعونَ
Edhi, the 'Saintly Fakir' and 'the richest poor man of Pakistan' died before midnight on Friday after a long battle with a kidney illness, triggering an outpouring of grief in the country for a man who transcended social, ethnic and religious divisions to help suffering humanity. 

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who mourned the loss of ‘a great servant of humanity’, announced a state funeral and a day of national mourning in honour of the man who owned just two sets of clothes, but who became the messiah for the country’s destitute and orphans and created a place in the hearts of millions of Pakistanis.

It was the country’s first state funeral since the death of military dictator General Ziaul Haq in 1988. Top political leaders, including President Mamnoon Hussain, provincial chief ministers and three services chiefs were present at the National Stadium in Karachi as a military jeep carrying Edhi’s coffin draped with national flag and covered with rose petals, drove in. A crowd of thousands of mourners broke through the military lines to help carry the coffin. The stadium reverberated with the slogans of Nara-e-Takbeer and Kalma-e-Shahadat.

After Maulana Ahmed Khan Niazi led the funeral prayers, the military fired a 19-gun salute and presented a guard of honour to Edhi. “As the state carriage leaves the stadium 19 guns salute begins- state funeral Edhi Sahib,” chief military spokesperson Lt Gen Asim Bajwa wrote on Twitter as Edhi’s coffin headed for Edhi Village on the edge of Karachi.

Attendees at the funeral included myself and my brother, President Mamnoon Hussain, Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani, the chief ministers of Sindh and Punjab, federal and provincial ministers, top politicians and famed philanthropists. Army chief General Raheel Sharif, Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman, Naval Chief Admiral Zakaullah, Corps Commander Karachi Lt Gen Naveed Mukhtar, DG Rangers Maj Gen Bilal Akbar and IGP Sindh Allah Dino Khowaja were also in attendance.

The military jeep drove Edhi’s coffin to the Edhi Village on Superhighway where he was to be laid to rest according to his will in a grave he had dug for himself more than two decades ago. A large number of security and private vehicles accompanied the coffin in a convoy.

A military band played out trumpet as Edhi’s coffin was lowered into the grave by renowned social worker Sarim Burney and Ramzan Chhipa. 

کس قدر نازاں ہے یہ خاک اپنی قسمت پہ

اِس نے اِک گوہر اپنے اندر چھپا رکھا ہے

“My religion is humanitarianism, which is the basis of every religion in the world.”

Call for Educational Emergency to Address Educational Crisis in District Diamer, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

Lately Alif Ailaan and ASER Pakistan have released their reports on Pakistan District Education Rankings 2016  and Annual Status of Education Report-2015 respectively. Both of these reports were showing nationwide educational attainments in terms of learning outcomes, enrollment, school infrastructure and facilities among other indicators. In this regard, I have already assessed the ASER Report-2015 and published my findings with respect to the ground realities in comparative analysis of education in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) Pakistan. The crux of both the reports is that, overall performing of GB is over and above the national average in terms of net enrollment, retention and learning outcomes in language and numeracy. However, the school infrastructure score remains deplorable, with more than 50% of the schools failing to provide basic facilities to students in GB. District Hunza-Nagar and Ghizer are on top of the list in terms of Primary schools as % of total schools at national level. In this regard Diamer is ranked at 106 out of 145 districts in Pakistan. Similarly, across GB, Diamer is the worst performing district as almost all of its indicators in education sector shows alarming outlook; thus badly affecting the overall ranking of GB in education at national level.

Therefore, this write-up is mainly focusing on what works, what not works and what needed to be done to address the educational crisis in District Diamer in the days to come.

According to United Nations Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) report on ‘State of Children in Pakistan’ in District Diamer with an estimated population of 200,000-plus, “only four girls attend middle school.” According to the Alif Ailaan’s Pakistan District Education Ranking 2016, Diamer is ranked 92 out of 145 districts in educational attainments. On the scale of 0 to 100, in the year 2016, district Diamer scored 28 in enrollment (access), 82 in learning outcomes (test scores), 56 in retention (survival rate up till class 5) and 53 in gender parity (equity). As compare to last year, the overall school enrollment score has been decreased from 39 to 28 and retention score from 78 to 56. Nevertheless, as compare to last year gender parity and learning score of Diamer have been improved, but still there is a long way to go to abridge this gap and bring it at par with regional and national average.   

It is alarming to see that as per ASER Survey-2015, 91% of children (age 3-5) are out of preschools and 52% of children (age 6-16) are out-of-schools in District Diamer. This means overall a whopping 72% of children (age 3-16) are out-of-school in Diamer. Out of these out-of-school-children (OOSC), an overwhelming 69% are girls. And out of all enrolled girls in Primary schools, only 16% can read a sentence in Urdu and 15% in English in Diamer. However, it is interesting to note it here that, in terms of learning outcomes (test scores) in numeracy (mathematics) District Diamer is among the top performing districts at GB and national level as 65% girls and 64% boys can do at least two digit subtractions. This shows that the children of Diamer are equally talented but they needed access to educational facilities and a level playing to unlock their true potential. And this is where state institutions needed to intervene.

In terms of overall education score of Diamer, Pakistan District Education Rankings 2016 have placed Diamer at the bottom of the list as its average score in education is 1^st quartile which is much lower than regional and national average. 

Similarly, regarding infrastructure facilities, the Diamer district has been ranked 79 out of 145 districts at national level and 4 out of 7 surveyed districts at GB level. Last year it was ranked 127 out of 148 districts at national level and it was at 4^th position out of 7 districts at GB level. This shows a commendable improvement in infrastructure in terms of electricity, drinking water, boundary wall and physical condition of school buildings in Diamer. However, availability of functional toilets and boundary wall are some of the main issues as 88% of schools are running without toilet facility and 55% are without a boundary wall in Diamer. These are the major reasons in this conservative society, due to which 44% school children (especially girls) are dropping out of school without completing even the Primary level of schooling in Diamer.

It is befitting to note it here that, out of 239 total schools, 86% are Primary Schools in Diamer. While in GB and national level, there are 63% and 46% Primary School. Similarly, there are 68% Primary schools with a single teacher in Diamer; whereas, it is 35% at GB level and 15% at the national level. In the same way, there are 38% Primary schools with a single classroom in Diamer; whereas, it is 11% at GB level and 7% at the national level.

These indicators underpin the GB government policy through which it has opened small schools with a multi-grade system in isolated and equally scattered areas. As a consequence, there is a proliferation of schools, but ironically many lack quality staff and the basic requirements of a school. According to local media reports, the backdoor appointments of under-qualified kith and kin of powerful government officials as a school teachers have made the matter worst in the Diamer district in general and Goharabad in particular. As a result, the otherwise bright children of Diamer are depriving in getting their basic human and constitutional right in terms of access to quality education. This deprivation have further trapped locals in poverty cycle and exacerbated security related challenges in the region as we have already seen manifestation of this intellectual poverty in the form of 2013 Nanga Parbat massacre, sectarian killing in Harban Nala, terrorist attacks on law enforcement agencies and blown up of girls school buildings in recent past in District Diamer.

Therefore, I call upon the GB government in general and the Education Minister and Secretary Education in particular to enforce educational emergency to address the educational crisis in District Diamer. In this regard, it is suggested to provide all missing facilities in existing schools under forthcoming provincial budget besides starting enrollment campaign through community mobilization with special focus on out of school girls. Also build new girls’ schools and post-primary level schools, closer to large communities with higher out-of-school girls’ populations and low transition levels from primary to middle as it can potentially improve gender parity score. Additionally, it is suggested to offer incentives to get education  and prevent corporal punishment to increase girls' enrollment.

Furthermore, proper monitoring and participatory evaluation of the existing school to ensure the presence of school teachers, timely control of dropouts along with quality of teaching through teachers training and merit-based appointment of teachers is the need of the hour. Besides this, the government needed to involve private sector through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) as this kind of partnership with the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) under the Education Development and Improvement Programme (EDIP) have already proven to be a highly fruitful venture as it helped increase the enrollment and learning outcomes for both girls and boys in local schools in Diamer District. Last but not the least, GB government, educated youth and locals needed to take ownership of educational development by protecting educational facilities, pinpointing their educational issues and find local solution with the help of concerned stakeholders, including  Non-Government Organizations besides encouraging children to attend school to address the educational crisis in District Diamer. To sensitize locals and resistance forces against girls’ education,  it is suggested to arrange exposure visits to local elders, clergymen and notable social activist from Diamer to other districts in GB where educational attainments are impressive and gender parity is at its best in Pakistan. Furthermore, in the age of social media, GB Education department is needed to virtually engage targeted communities through social media updates and complaints redressal. Let’s reiterate our commitment to play our due role to promote quality education in District Diamer as educated Diamer is in the very interest of prosperous GB and secure Pakistan.   

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 Readers of this column also read "Comparative Analysis of Education in Gilgit-Baltistan Pakistan" 

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District-Wise Status of Education in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

There are no two opinions that a person who is able to read or write or do basic arithmetic during early formative years, is highly likely to acquire other important life skills that are important to have a productive and meaningful life in today's competitive world. Therefore, it is very much important for all of us to know how our children learnt and also identifies areas where they needed to bring further improvement with respect to educational attainments along with enrollment. In this context, I have written this write-up on the basis of secondary data of ASER Survey-2015 which have lately assessed 13,056 children having an age range of 3 to 16 years from 208 Governments and 120 Private schools of 209 villages from all 7 districts of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan.

The main objective of this write-up is to give you a fair outlook about the latest status of education in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) Pakistan. So that we, all the stakeholders in GB, could see our educational attainments with reference to national level figures and play our due roles to place learning at the center of our attention and discourse by moving from evidence to solutions; thus achieve sustainable development goals (SDG-4) by focusing on access-plus-quality education in GB.

1. Status of In-School (IS) & Out-of-School-Children (OOSC) 

AS can be seen from the aforementioned table, 85% of our children are enrolled in school in Gilgit-Baltistan as compare to the 81.5% enrollment rate at the national level in Pakistan. This indicates that overall GB is performing better in the education arena of Pakistan.

In GB, district Hunza-Nagar is on top of the list with a 97.6% enrollment rate, then comes district Ghizer with 96.9% enrollment followed by district Astore with 92.8% enrollment rate in class 1 to 10.

But ironically, district Diamer is worst performing with respect to enrollment of children having an age range of 5 to 16. This is badly affecting the overall enrollment rate of GB. The data also reveal that there is a wide gap in the enrollment between the boys and girls in the educational institutions in Diamer. According to recently released report of United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on ‘State of Children in Pakistan’ "in District Diamer with an estimated population of 200,000-plus, only four girls attend middle school".

Even though district Diamer had five members in Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly (GBLA) from 2009 to 2015 but more than 52.2% children are still out of school in District Diamer. This shows criminal negligence from the political leaders and state representatives from Diamer who needed to work on war footing to address this dismal situation that is the product of a confluence of adverse factors, including a difficult geography, influence of orthodox religious scholars, insufficient government resources and cultural biases against women’s education.

In district Skardu 18.7% of children are out of school in the year 2015 from where 5 PPP members along with other 2 members, including then Chief Minister (CM) Mehdi Shah were sitting GBLA, but here again, they have failed to provide education to almost two fourth of children from district Skardu. Almost the same is the case with district Gilgit-the constituency of current CM Mr. Hafizur Rahman, where 11.8% children are out of school.

2. Status of Enrollment in Pre-Schooling

As the scientific research have categorically proved that early years schooling have an important role in the development of social, emotional, and cognitive skills of a child. Therefore, we the GBians have started to understand this reality as 40% of our 3 to 5 years old children are receiving Early Years Schooling as compared to the 37% enrollment rate in ECE at national level in Pakistan. But we needed to concentrate on Early Years education (ECE/ECD) especially in Diamer, Skardu, Ghanche and Gilgit; whereas, Hunza and Ghizer district are relatively moving in the right direction regarding pre-schooling (ECE/ECD).

3. Learning Level of URDU by School Type and Gender

To enroll our children in school is mere a mean to an end; and the end is to improve learning level of school going children. In this regard, when we have a look at the subject-wise learning outcomes of school going children (age 5-16) in Gilgit-Baltistan, it comes to know that in the subject of Urdu our children in GB are learning more (64%) than the learning level of Urdu at national level (i.e. 61%). It is interesting to see that at the provincial level, the children from district Ghizer are outperforming in Urdu at GB level, followed by children from Astore, Diamer and Gilgit. Whereas, school going children and concern teachers from Hunza-Nagar, Skardu and Ghanche needed to concentrate on improving their learning level in Urdu. It is high time for concern education department and stakeholders to concentrate on improving learning outcomes of our children in Urdu in Hunza-Nagar, Skardu and Ghanche districts of GB.

It is equally interesting to see that our Government Schools in GB are rendering much better quality education in Urdu than those of other government schools in Pakistan as the learning outcomes of our children in Urdu is much better than that of learning outcomes in Urdu at national level in Pakistan.

4. Learning Level of ENGLISH by School Type and Gender

There are no two opinions about the importance of learning English language, as it is the language of science and technology in today's globalized world. English is the dominant business language and it has become almost a necessity for people speak English if they are to enter a global job market. In this context, it is heartwarming to see that our Government and Private schools are equally equipping our children with English language as the learning outcomes of English is much higher in GB than that of learning English at national level in Pakistan.

At GB level, our children from district Hunza-Nagar, Astore and Gilgit are outperforming in English; whereas, children from district Diamer, Ghanche and Skardu needed to concentrate on improving learning outcomes in English in the days to come as they are performing at a lower rate than the regional average learning rate in English.

5. Learning Level of ARITHMETIC by School Type & Gender

As can be seen from the aforementioned table, the children having an age range of 5-16 from district Astore are at the top of the list regarding learning outcomes in Mathematics, then comes children from district Ghizer and Diamer. Whereas, children from district Hunza-Nagar, Skardu, Gilgit and Ghanche needed to focus more on learning mathematics as their learning level in Mathematics is less than regional average but somewhat above than national average learning level in Mathematics.

6. Status of School Children Attending Paid TuitionAs can be seen from the given table that, at national level parents are spending more resources to provide tuition for their children from class one to ten; whereas, in GB this is not a common practice though it has taken momentum during recent years. For instance, in GB, overall 7.8% children were receiving paid tuitions during the year 2013 whereas, this has been increased to 13% in the year 2015 showing a whopping 60% increase in the rate of receiving paid tuitions in GB. 

7. Status of Parents Having At Least Primary Schooling

As can be seen from this table, 39% parents of school going children having an age range of 3-16 years have at least primary schooling in GB; whereas, this is 38% at the national level. District-wise Hunza-Nagar has the highest number of parents who have passed at least primary level of schooling. Whereas, Diamer, Astore and Skardu have the lowest number of at least primary pass parents. In district Hunza-Nagar, the mothers of school going children are more educated than those of fathers from Skardu, Astore and Diamer district in GB. 

8. Status of Absenteeism in Government and Private Schools

Overall 87% children and 90% teachers were present during the day of visit to  

208 Governments and 120 Private schools in 209 villages from all 7 districts of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. In private schools, 90% children and 91.7% teachers were present; whereas, 84.1% children and 89.4 teachers were present in surveyed Government schools in Gilgit-Baltistan.

9. Status of Facilities in GB Schools

 As can be seen from this table, overall 74% survey schools have connection of electricity, 38% schools have library, 68% schools have boundary wall, 52% schools have playground, 66% schools have toilets and 67% schools have drinking water facility. Furthermore, on the average sum of 8 classrooms were being used for classes in each surveyed school in Gilgit-Baltistan.

10. Qualification of  School Teachers in GB Schools

There are more qualified teachers in surveyed Private Schools as compare to surveyed Government Schools in GB. As can be seen from this table, in terms of General Qualification, majority of teachers have Bachelor's, Master’s or Above level degree; whereas, only 27% teachers are under intermediate certificate in GB. Only 1% school teachers in surveyed school Similarly, in terms of professional qualification, 76% school teachers have B.Ed, M.Ed or above level degree in GB. 

9. Conclusion and Recommendations

From this report, we can easily infer that at national level GB is performing better regarding enrollment and educational attainments in language (Urdu/English) and numeracy (Mathematics). But across the GB level, still a lot more is needed to be done to ensure access plus quality education, especially in pre-schooling (ECE/ECD). Similarly, it has been cleared from this report that learning level of children attending private schools are only marginally better than those of the kids attending private schools of GB as our government schools are doing a good job in imparting quality education to our children, thanks to their attractive salaries in GB.

In terms of enrollment in early years schooling to class 10, gender parity and parental education, district Hunza-Nagar stood on top of the list among all the seven districts of GB. Nevertheless, to sustain the soft image of Hunza as "a paradise of high literacy and gender equality in a remote corner of Pakistan" we needed to put our best to improve learning outcomes of children from class 1 to 10 in Mathematics and Urdu. I am fully convinced that now that when district Hunza have been separated from Nagar, the indicators will definitely show much better outlooks in forthcoming surveys as the educational attainment related indicators were being affected due to low literacy rate in Nagar district.

Similarly, in terms of overall learning attainments in Urdu, English and Math, district Ghizer and Astore secure 1st position at GB level followed by district Hunza-Nagar and Gilgit respectively.

Although district Ghanche have shown impressive outlook in terms of enrollment in school other than ECE; nevertheless, it needed to concentrate on improving learning outcomes of children from class 1 to 10 in English, Urdu and Mathematics.

It is a refreshing to see that students from Diamer are more talented in ARITHMETIC than those of the students from Hunza-Nagar district. But ironically, enrollment is highly skewed in favor of boys and the Out of School Children (OOSCs) are more than In-School children (ISCs) in class 1 to 10 in Diamer. Only 16% of Girls from these enrolled students can read at least a sentence. In ECE class only 9% children are enrolled whereas, 91% of ECE level kids are out of school in Diamer. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to all the stakeholders in general and GB Government in particular to concentrate on ensuring access plus quality education to our children in district Diamer as it's the responsibility of state under Article 25-A of the constitution of pakistan "to provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of 5 to 16 years in such manner as may be determined by law". Furthermore, after 18th amendment in the constitution of pakistan, education planning and development comes under the jurisdiction of provincial governments in Pakistan. The current GB government's decision to hand over the early years schooling to womenfolk besides merit based induction of thousand of teaching and non-teaching staff in the government's education department are the right move in the right direction. Nevertheless, it needed to formulate a policy on education and children’s rights and address our education related issues on top priority basis. So that we could achieve SDGs on time.

It is interesting to see that district Ghizer have impressive credentials with respect to overall enrollment, parental educational and educational attainments of children from class 1 to 10 in Urdu, English and Mathematics. Nevertheless, enrollment in Early Years Schooling (ECE/ECD) and paid tuition are yet to catch up with national and regional average in the days to come in district Ghizer.

Skardu, once a top performing district in GB, has experienced setbacks during recent years in educational attainments, enrollment and gender parity due to alleged corrupt practices in hiring teachers and rent seeking activities of last PPP government under its representative in GBLA and then CM GB from Skardu.

In the backdrop of the aforementioned facts and figures, our unique ground realities and raising needs of our region with respect to massive China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, we can easily infer that quality education is the only way for the meaningful development of GB in the days to come. Furthermore, our education sector in GB has every reason and potential to be nurtured as a model for the rest of the country. However, efforts are needed at multiple levels and in all districts to strive for the cause of education in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan.

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Pakistan Day and My Commitments for Pakistan!

It's Pakistan Day and Holi today. On this occasion i would like to extend my heartfelt felicitations to my countrymen. We are celebrating these days on such an occasion when we are confronting different socio-economic and national security related challenges at internal front and war against terrorism and global warming at international front. 

But being a Pakistani, i am fully optimist that under the abled leadership of Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan Army (COAS) General Raheel Sharif Pakistan Army and other law enforcement agencies Pakistan are doing their best to eliminate terrorist and their hideouts from our beloved country. God willingly we will be able to secure Pakistan from these terrorist and hatemongers very soon. Meanwhile, democratic government under the leadership of Mr. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is putting it's best to overcome challenges at internal front. The economic revival policy, National Action Plan, China Pakistan Economic Corridor Project, Central Asia-South Asia (CASA) 1,000 project, Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India Pipeline project and other energy projects are indicating the long term commitment of Pakistani government to overcome energy crisis and economic problems with special focus on regional trade and cooperation.

It is high time for the government to concentrate on providing employment opportunities to our youth who are suffering due to the dearth of employment opportunities in Pakistan. In the backdrop of rising threat of new security challenges that are arising with the rise of new terrorist outfits like Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISSI) are reposing new security challenges at domestic front. The ISI terrorist baked attacks in Brussels on yesterday manifests the global challenge of terrorism and extremism. The National Action Plan is needed to implement in its true words and spirit throughout Pakistan. The activism of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to nab the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats is sincerity of government towards its commitment to ensure quality, transparency and accountability in our institutions. 

At personal level i am grateful for Almighty Allah for granting me opportunities to become the part of solution to the grave socio-economic challenges in Pakistan. On the occasion of Pakistan day i would like to reiterate my commitment for Pakistan and i promise from the sacred soil of the land to protect its dignity by serving our beloved Pakistan to the best of my abilities in the days to come. I envision a Pakistan that is economically vibrant, socially tolerant and sensitive to minorities, politically participatory democracy and educationally a meritocratic society in Pakistan.

Pakistan Payindabad!