February 01, 2007	Thursday	Muharram 12, 1428

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LAHORE, Jan 31: The Punjab education department will resist the federal education ministry’s decision to stop Punjab’s share in president’s fund for the provision of missing facilities in educational institutions in the province.

The department is expecting its share in President’s Rs1 billion fund proportionate to its educational needs.

It is learnt that the funds have been stopped by the federal education ministry on the pretext that the Punjab education department has entered into a contract with the National Logistic Cell for the construction of `missing facilities’ in schools and colleges.

Sources said federal education minister Javed Ashraf Qazi wanted Punjab education department to give the contract to some other army corps instead of the NLC.

When contacted, Punjab education minister Mian Imran Masood confirmed that the federal ministry had withheld Punjab’s share in the fund.

Mr Masood said he had lodged his protest over the stoppage of funds in the recently held inter-provincial education ministers’ conference in Islamabad. He said that he was surprised by federal education minister’s response when he said that the funds were stopped after refusal (to accept funds) from the Punjab education secretary.

The Punjab minister said he immediately sought clarification from education secretary Syed Akhlaq Gillani, who was also present at the meeting, but the officer denied having refused the funds.

Mr Masood said that he had stated during the meeting that he would strongly protest the stoppage of Punjab’s share in President’s fund. “The Punjab education department will not let the (federal) education ministry divert Punjab’s share to anywhere else.

To a question, Mr Masood said the education department had decided to award the contract for missing facilities to the NLC, because the cell was expected to ensure quality construction as well as repairs and maintenance in time. He said the NLC would be getting 21 per cent handling charges for the project.

On the other hand, he said, the education department had received several complaints including those about the quality of construction work, delay in completion timeframe and misappropriation of funds in the projects carried out by Communication and Works (C&W) department during the last three years.

TEXTBOOKS: Meanwhile, Mr Masood said that he had also told the federal education minister that Punjab education department would not be able to print textbooks in time if the ministry did not timely provide it the approved curricula.

He said that federal education minister Mr Qazi had agreed to this demand and assured that the approved curricula would reach to respective provinces well in time.

DECLARATION OF RESULTS: The Punjab education minister has also asked the federal education minister to ensure that the federal board should declare matriculation and intermediate results of all Punjab boards of intermediate and secondary education simultaneously. He said the federal board was announcing results before the declaration by other boards, which was tantamount to giving undue favour to federal board students in getting admissions to Punjab’s elite colleges.

When contacted, federal minister Javed Ashraf Qazi confirmed that the Punjab’s share in President’s fund had been stopped because the Punjab education department signed a contract with the NLC for construction of missing infrastructure in educational institutions.

“As the original PC-I for the project does not include NLC for its execution, the finance ministry has asked the education ministry to surrender Punjab’s share,” he said.