KARACHI, Dec 11: Speakers at a seminar on Tuesday criticized the government decision of denationalizing educational institutions of Sindh, terming the move discriminatory towards the province.

The seminar, which was jointly organized by the Action Committee for Civic Problems (ACCP) and the Sindh Professors- Lecturers Association (SPLA) at the Pakistan Medical Association house, saw political leaders belonging to various parties speaking against the Sindh cabinet decision of handing over the educational institutes to the private sector.

The SPLA president, Mirza Ather Hussain, said that if the educational institutes were given in the private sector, education would become prohibitively expensive for the poor.

Explaining his point of view, he gave the example of a government decision, implemented in 1985, in which it was decided that foreign students would be made to pay on a no-profit-no-loss basis and their educational expenses would be subsidized. The government estimated that the educational expenses of the foreign students would come to Rs36,000. “If we were to use the same estimate, the students would be required to pay Rs3,000 per month,” he said.

A representative of the Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba, Syed Tahir Akber, said the denationalization move would affect some 750,000 students and 16,700 teachers in the province.

The ACCP convener, Baseer Naveed, criticized the Sindh governor, Mohammedmian Soomro, for planning to give the educational institutes to the private sector. He alleged that Mr Soomro, being an official of the International Monetary Fund, was not alive to the problems of the Karachiites.

The acting secretary-general of the Pakistan People’s Party, Raza Rabbani, said the government, being unelected, had no right to undo the measures taken by an elected government. He added that the PPP had always supported the idea of lifting the ban on trade unions and students’ unions.

The former speaker of the Sindh Assembly, Razique Khan, observed that if education was made expensive, it would give birth to political polarization.

The president of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Karachi, Mairajul Huda, said the ban on the trade unions and students’ unions had been enforced in 1984. He added that since then the PPP had come into power twice but it had not done anything to lift the ban.

The president of the PPP, Sindh, Nisar Khuhro, said a few days ago the police had manhandled some protesting teachers in the interior of Sindh. He urged the government to accord respect to teachers.

The chief of the Pakistan Minority Inqilabi Tehrik, Salim Khurshid Khokhar, said many schools in Karachi were being used by newly-elected Nazims as offices of union councils. He urged the city government to get those schools vacated.

He added that instead of ethics, the minorities should be taught about their own religion just as Muslim students were taught about Islam.

The secretary-general of the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf, Mairaj Mohammad Khan, said his party opposed the denationalization of the educational institutes of Sindh.

Amin Khattak, Zia Abbas, Bushra Mirza and others also spoke.