Once a major part of education, sports activities and scouting seem to be disappearing in the educational institutions of Islamabad.

The Islamabad Boy Scout Association’s (IBSA) affiliation with the Pakistan Boy Scout Association was suspended for some years and restored last year, but due to shortage of funds, the association has been struggling to start scouting activities.

In the past, the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) was the main source of funding for scouting activities, but the board has stopped providing funds during the last few years because of alleged corruption in funding it released between 2007 and 2013.

“When I took charge as board chairman, I was told millions of rupees, maybe Rs10 million per year, had been released by my predecessor Shaheen Khan for scouting activities between 2007 and 2013. We are asking for details of the expenditure and an audit report before releasing more money,” said FBISE Chairman Dr Ikram Malik.

Ms Khan was FBISE chairperson and IBSA provincial commissioner during the PPP government. The incumbent IBSA secretary, Prof Dr Abdul Hayee Sheikh, said the association was revived in 2016 by the Islamabad chief commissioner and a new administration had been approved.

As per last year’s notification, Islamabad Chief Commissioner Zulfiqar Haider is chief scout, Federal Directorate of Education Director (Model Colleges) Dr Tariq Masood is provincial commissioner while Mr Sheikh is IBSA secretary.

“The previous IBSA administration is supposed to provide details of accounts to the FBISE, not us. What is our fault? We have requested our predecessors many times but they have yet to submit the required details,” Mr Sheikh said.

“We are in a fix. Our predecessors are not providing us details and the FBISE is not releasing funds,” he added.

The Islamabad College for Boys (ICB) G-6 last year donated a room to house the IBSA’s office, which is where the association is operating from.

“We have almost 150 scouts in ICB G-6 and 60 in IMCB F-8 and we are taking all possible steps to bring about improvement, but funding is a major hurdle,” Mr Sheikh said, adding that the scout association falls under the administrative control of the inter-provincial coordination ministry, which does not give it much importance.

“The government allocated almost Rs3m for the IBSA in the fiscal year 2017-18 which is not even enough for salaries,” he said.

FDE Director General Hasnat Qureshi, who is also IBSA vice president, said legal action will be taken against the previous IBSA management for not providing details of the accounts during its tenure.

“We have re-activated scouting activities and sent 200 students to attend a camp in Abbotabad,” he added.

Just recently, the IBSA conducted a one-day scout camp at ICB G-6 as part of its Independence Day celebrations.

According to the rules, every year, the president of Pakistan, who is also chief scout, confers presidential medals to three scouts from each province and Islamabad including one for children of between seven and 12 years of age, one for boys aged 12-18 and one for scouts aged 18-25. However, these medals have not been conferred for the last many years for students of Islamabad.

Dr Afzal Babar, assistant provincial commissioner, said the rules called for two scouts to visit Saudi Arabia each year to perform scout duties during Haj which has not been done for some years now.

“Where have the millions of rupees that the FBISE released during the PPP tenure gone? We suspect massive corruption,” he claimed.

When asked, former FBISE chairperson Shaheen Khan said she had released the FBISE’s funds for the promotion of scouting activities in accordance with rules and regulations, and proper activities were held during her tenure.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2017