January 25, 2008	Friday	Muharram 15, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Jan 24: Senate Standing Committee on Education has called for speedy release of funds and underlined the need for removing bottlenecks in this regard and ensure their proper utilisation to improve standard of education.

The committee, which met here on Thursday with Senator Razina Alam Khan in the chair, was given a detailed briefing on the mid-term review of development and recurring budget of the education ministry.

The committee members were unanimous on making the observation that the review would help formulate a mechanism to remove hurdles in the way of smooth release and proper utilisation of funds for various projects and other necessary development initiatives.

It was pointed out that lapse of funds had a negative impact on the overall performance of the education sector and there was a need to make coordinated efforts and take stakeholders on board to expedite the pace of work on projects both at the federal and provincial levels. According to a press release, the committee vowed to make efforts in this regard and take provinces on board to remove the impediments.

The committee’s chairperson, Senator Razina Alam Khan, appreciated the proposal of mid-term review of the recurring and development budget and remarked that such a step would undoubtedly help the government to overcome deficiencies and frame viable policies.

Earlier, the education secretary, in his briefing, gave a detailed overview of the development and recurring budget of the ministry. He said the process of release of funds was so cumbersome that its timely utilisation became almost impossible.

He suggested that the federal training institutions should be given sufficient budget under the recurring side for training activities instead of the development side. He apprised the committee of the overall position of releases and allocations of funds against major development projects like establishment and operation of basic education, community schools, presidents’ education sector reform programme, trainings for capacity building of elementary teachers, Madressah reforms project, etc.

Caretaker Minister for Education Shams Qasim Lakha appreciated the committee for taking keen interest in overcoming the difficulties and expressed the hope that it would help stimulate government’s efforts, aimed at improving the system of education from top to bottom.

The meeting was attended by senators Tahira Latif, Dr Abdul Khaliq Pirzada, Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, S.M. Zafar, Dr Mohammad Said, Maulvi Agha Mohammad, Sajid Mir and Prof Mohammad Ibrahim Khan.

Secretary, Ministry of Education, Jehangir Bashar, Senate Secretary Raja Mohammad Amin and senior officers of the ministry were also present.