19 October 2004	Tuesday	04 Ramazan 1425

ISLAMABAD, Oct 18: Minister of State for Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar on Monday failed to account for almost $100 million grant from the United States for the education sector reform while responding to a question by an opposition member in the National Assembly.

The response by the newly-appointed state minister in the lower house also contradicted the information placed before the Senate earlier in July by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in his capacity as the finance minister and by the former education minister Zobaida Jalal.

Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali of PML-N in his question had specifically asked, "will the minister for economic affairs and statistics be pleased to state (a) the total grant received by the present government from the foreign countries to improve the existing educational system in the country, indicating also, the names of the donor countries with year-wise break-up; and (b) the detail of the projects undertaken so far out of the said grant with province-wise break-up?"

The state minister, in her written response, said, "grant received by the present government from the foreign countries and other donor agencies to improve the existing educational system in the country was $22.58 million."

Giving details of the amount given by each donor separately, the state minister said European Union had given $5.21 million: Norway $3.02 million; United Kingdom $1.82 million; UNFPA $0.20 million; World Food Programme $12.06 million; and Islamic Development Bank $0.23 million.

Talking to Dawn, Abid Sher Ali said under the rules of business, provision of wrong information not only breached the privilege of a member but the entire House. He said he had been repeatedly asking the government to provide the information and when the same has been provided, it includes the most obvious omissions.

The state minister did not mention the details available in the Senate record as provided by Prime Minister Aziz who had informed the upper house on July 20 that the US had provided $36.85 million under the "Strategic Objective Grant Agreement for Education out of a total of $100 million."

A figure of Rs48.409 million was also missing from the reply of the state minister as earlier revealed by the former education minister Zobaida Jalal before the upper house on July 14.

Ms Jalal had placed before the Senate details of the agreement signed by the USAID with 51 NGOs for provision of Rs48.409 million as grant through Education Sector Reform Assistance (ESRA) and Research Triangle Institute (RTI) for implementation of the programme.