ABBOTTABAD: Members of the Abbottabad district council on Thursday said the schools, whose buildings were damaged in the 2005 earthquake, needed funds for early reconstruction.

Addressing the district forum of Awaz, an awareness and accountability programme, here, district councillors Tehmina Faheem and Babu Mohammad Khushal said despite the passage of a decade, the Erra hadn’t reconstructed damaged school buildings in Abbottabad on the plea of financial constraints.

Tehmina Faheem, who is also the district president of the PTI women wing, said education of the students had been adversely affected due to the delay in the reconstruction of school buildings.

Councillors complain incomplete work has forced students to attend classes in the open

She said such structures were demolished before new contracts were awarded for their reconstruction but most contractors had fled leaving the work incomplete.

The councillor said the district council had discussed many issues, including performance of basic health units, under-staffing and shortage of facilities and medicines there, but no concrete action had been taken so far.

Babu Mohammad said the building of Government Boys Primary School, Zaro Gali, was demolished in 2008 for reconstruction but work on it had been continuing since then, to the misery of 120 students, who attended classes in a mosque.

He said in the recent earthquake, buildings of the Government Primary School Bagari, Government Primary School Rata and Government Primary School Kohar were damaged but no alternative arrangements could be made for students.

The councillor said Pind Kargu Khan faced lack supply of clean drinking water and had few health facilities and schools.

He said the Government Girls High School Pind Kargu Khan had no washrooms and lacked supply of drinking water.

Councillors from Bagnother union council Sajid Saeed and Bushra Waheed, who were also in attendance, complained the building of the government girls high school in the area was damaged in the 2005 earthquake but work on it was incomplete forcing students to attend classes in the open. They also said the school didn’t have supply of clean drinking water.

The councillor demanded that the relevant authorities ensure corrective measures without delay.

COLLEGE’S AFFILIATION SUSPENDED: The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Abbottabad has suspended the affiliation of the Jinnah Jame School and College Haripur with it for the academic session 2016 onward.

In a news release issued here on Friday, BISE Abbottabad secretary Jehan Dad Khan Marwat said the board had conducted an inquiry after the Jinnah Jame School and College Haripur expelled three students on theft charge.

He said the inquiry committee found the charges to be baseless and asked the college management to tender unconditional apology to the students but the latter refused to do so.

The secretary said the board had suspended the affiliation of the college over non-compliance with the directives.

“However, keeping in view the public interest at large, registration of the already admitted students of Class 9 and first year will be entertained under the BISE rules,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2015