KARACHI, March 11: The Sindh Textbook Board has failed to start the process of procuring paper for textbooks printing for the upcoming academic session starting from August 15.

Textbooks had not only been printed in other provinces but the process of their distribution had been started and the Sindh province lagged behind owing to indecisiveness and disinterest shown by the authorities concerned in the provincial education department, well-placed sources told Dawn on Sunday.

Although the Sindh education department removed the former acting chairman of the Sindh Textbook Board on February 25 after he had hinted at procuring not only paper but getting the textbooks printed from abroad. He was charged of depriving the local industry of its business.

Former chairman Dr Mohammad Ali Shaikh hinted at importing textbooks after seven bidders won the bid. Eleven bidders had participated in a tender for providing Rs340 million paper of 68 gram quality and the samples from seven of them were approved by a laboratory. However, when sent to another laboratory all the samples were declared substandard, which sparked controversy.

Sindh education department immediately removed Dr Shaikh and appointed Mazhar Ali Siddiqui, as Acting Chairman of the Sindh Textbook Board, in addition to his present posting as Director (Planning & Development), Education and Literacy Department. Since he took over the charge as acting chairman STB, Mr Siddiqui appeared reluctant in initiating the process of procuring paper and giving allocation to printers/ publishers.

Sources said the post of the STB chairman was of grade 20, and Mr Siddiqui was in grade 19, and he might be cautious to take decisions that could create legal problems for him in future and bring him a bad name as the entire project of procuring paper and printing textbooks involved Rs700 million.

However, the sources said any interruption in initiating the process could ultimately cause an inordinate delay as the procurement of paper and printing of textbooks process would have to be completed by the end of July and the books should be distributed before the academic session beginning on August 15.

They said the Sindh education minister was on her foreign visit and she might expedite the matter after her return to the country. They said the provincial government distributed textbooks to pupils in public sector schools across the province free of cost and they might be deprived of those books due to wrangling within the department. This could be an issue in the interior of Sindh during the election campaign in connection with general elections, they added.

Meanwhile, the representatives of the Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers’ Association had sought time to have a meeting with Sindh Education Minister Dr Hameeda Khuhro to discuss the issue of textbooks in the last week of February. The meeting was postponed at the eleventh hour and the reasons were cited that the minister was engaged in another important matter. Since then, the meeting could not be arranged.

PPBA Chairman Aziz Khalid termed the situation disappointing and said the Sindh Textbook Board planned to get class one and class six books printed but the publishers were not given allocation and they were also not informed about the specification of textbooks.

He said publishing, printing and binding was a lengthy process and the delaying tactics to procure paper and get textbooks printed by bureaucracy in education department could be a conspiracy to make the education minister unsuccessful in the next general election to be scheduled by the end of this year.