JI to protest against ‘controversial results’ outside BIEK tomorrow

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi chief Monem Zafar has demanded that the government stop “education apartheid” in the city, claiming that the situation has become totally unacceptable, with the educational future of 80 per cent students at stake.

Speaking at a press conference at the JI Karachi’s headquarters Idara Noor-e-Haq on Tuesday, Zafar announced holding a major protest demonstration outside the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi on January 16 (tomorrow).

He appealed to all the affected students and their parents to join the protest against the “sheer injustice” he dubbed as “educational apartheid”.

Talking about the intermediate part-I’s “highly controversial results”, he demanded that the government make the scrutiny process crystal clear, withdraw the fee for the process and show the copies to the affected students. He welcomed the Sindh government’s decision to devise a parliamentary committee, but dubbed it “insufficient”.

He demanded that the government immediately set terms of references and time frames for the working of the parliamentary committee. He said that the relevant board had also constituted a committee around a fortnight ago, but no concrete step has been taken yet.

He also said the JI has already established an educational desk at its office, and now similar desks would be constituted on district level to facilitate the affected students. A Google link will also be generated for them, he added.

The JI city chief said that on the one hand the educational budget for the province for the past three years has exceed Rs1.1 trillion, while on the other, 2,997 public schools are still deprived of boundary walls.

He thanked Karachiites for their overwhelming response to the Gaza March at Sea View. He said the JI is also going to hold Mera Brand Pakistan Expo on January 18 and 19 at the Expo Centre to further pursue the Palestine cause.

The expo will be inaugurated by JI Pakistan chief Engr Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, and will feature Pakistani alternatives for Israeli and pro-Israeli products, he added.

On the subject of civic issues in Karachi, he said that 28 people have lost their lives in traffic accidents over the past 13 days, while over 270 people have suffered injuries. A large number of dumpers and tankers were directly involved in these accidents, he added.

He lamented that Saeed Ghani and Murtaza Wahab become furious when people open valves of these tankers in protest against acute water crises, but no FIR is lodged when these tankers kill Karachiites. He demanded that Wahab resign as the city mayor.