KHAR: Speakers at conference here on Saturday deplored lack of educational facilities in the tribal region and urged the government to take tangible steps in that regard.

The conference was organised to highlight the importance of education in socioeconomic development of the tribal areas. Islami Jamiat Talba (IJT) organised the event at the government postgraduate college in Khar.

Political and religious activists, students, civil society members, teachers and educationists attended the event.

Among the speakers were JI Fata chief Sardar Khan, JI local chapter public relations president Haji Azim Khan, educationist Prof Abdur Raqeeb, IJT provincial nazim Shakar Aziz and others.

The speakers stressed that education was the main driver behind development and prosperity of the western society. They said lack of education facilities had led to backwardness, ignorance and poverty in the tribal region. They flayed the rulers for not making efforts to promote education in Fata.

The speakers said people of tribal areas were aware of the importance of education and wanted their children educated, but lack of educational facilities hampered their task. They pointed out that the existing educational facilities in the region were insufficient.

The speakers said currently over 90,000 school-going children were out of school in Bajaur Agency owing to lack of educational facilities, and blamed the government and bureaucracy for the mess.

They also expressed concern over delay in construction of two degree colleges in the agency, which had been approved by the then KP governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan in November 2015. They slammed the senior officials of Fata secretariat for delaying construction of colleges.

The participants urged the federal government to withdraw ban on construction of new educational institutions in the region. They also asked the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor to take notice of the unnecessary delay in construction of two approved degree colleges.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2017