MULTAN, July 17: Promotion of the Seraiki language and fight against discriminatory education system are among the priorities of the newly-elected district Nazim.

In an exclusive interview with Dawn on Wednesday, Pir Riaz Husain Qureshi spelt out his agenda for development, resolving that he would handle the “headstrong” bureaucracy to introduce the devolution plan in letter and spirit.

The Nazim said there were some flaws in the devolution plan, especially as regard to huge structure of establishment imposed on the districts to suffer in terms of payment of salaries to the officials.

Besides, most of the committees formed under the devolution plan to create a system of checks and balances had yet to be introduced even after two years of the local-government system’s inception.

He said the main focus would be on revamping the education system to do away with the rural-urban divide regarding quality of education. The teachers serving in the rural areas needed training on modern lines. “Simple matriculate teachers cannot face modern-day challenges (in the world of information technology), he said.

However, the Nazim said instead of doing away with such academics the district government would organize refresher courses for them. He said the salary packages of the teachers working in the rural areas would be revised to reward them for serving in remote areas.

Pir Riaz said the students of rural areas could not perform well in the competitive examinations because of discriminatory system. “The public service commissions are doing injustice to the less developed districts,” he added.

When reminded that the education system’s revamping required resources more than those announced in the district budget for 2003-04 approved by the local government with DCO as its acting chief, the Nazim-elect blasted the fiscal statement, saying “it is the outcome of bureaucratic mind.”

He pledged that changes would be made in the budget according to the desires of the people and their elected representatives here.

The district head, who is also the chairman of the unofficial Seraiki Adabi Board for the past 10 years, criticized the authorities for giving step-motherly treatment to the language.

The Nazim said the difference between working of an elected and non-elected representative could be judged from the comparison of the district budgets prepared by former district Nazim Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi and the one formulated for the current fiscal. He said Shah Mahmood had allocated Rs1.3 million for each of the 126 union councils’ development while the allocation had been reduced to Rs0.5 million this year.

To a question about his liaison with the district bureaucracy, Pir Riaz said the officials would have to mould themselves in the role of public servants. After devolution, he said, many civil servants had accepted the ground realities, but there were few still facing difficulties in adjusting.