KARAK: Reforms could not be brought in any society without promotion of education, said Khushal Khan Khattak University Vice-chancellor Dr Ibrahim Khattak here on Thursday.

He was addressing the concluding session of the two-day workshop titled ‘Media ethics’ arranged at the university auditorium by its communication and media studies department.

He said that M.Phil classes were launched in the university and PhD classes would be started in the upcoming session. He asked the journalists to play their role for brining positivity in the society. He said that the university administration would welcome positive criticism to bring reforms in its affairs.

The vice-chancellor said that the university would arrange such workshops in future as well for the local journalists. He hoped that the workshop would benefit the participants in fulfilling their professional responsibilities.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Mirza Jan, the chairman of communication and media studies department, said that courage and good character were necessary for a working journalist. He said that those journalists, who were waging jihad against social evils, enjoyed respect in the society.

SCHOOLS: The Independent Monitoring Unit found 38 schools closed in the district during the last month.

The district monitoring officer, Khursheed Alam, told a meeting here on Thursday that the closed educational institutions included 26 schools for girls and 12 for boys. The meeting was attended by Assistant Commissioner Ataul Muneem, Deputy District Education Officer Aqal Badshah and three sub-divisional education officers.

Mr Alam said that 89 teachers were found absent from duty during surprise visits by the teams monitoring unit to different schools of the district. He said that total 717 teachers were found absent, however, 89 of them were absent without any solid reason. He said that109 non-teaching staffers were also found absent without any justification.

Mr Alam said that so far 1,067 students, both boys and girls, didn’t get books despite the fact that the provincial government had already provided free of cost books to the schools. The assistant commissioner said on the occasion that teachers should be made accountable.

TWO KILLED: Two persons were killed and three others received injuries when an oil tanker and a passenger coach collided on Indus Highway near Tordhand in the limits of Karak police station.

Police said that a passenger coach, going from Peshawar to DI Khan, collided head on with an oil tanker, coming from the opposite direction. Two passengers identified as Sher Rahim and Saleem Khan were killed in the accident.

Dilawar, Shahbaz and Sohail were injured in the accident. They were rushed to district headquarters hospital in Karak in precarious condition.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2014