TIMERGARA: A total of 22 schools in Lower Dir district are without head teachers while 229 posts of subject specialists in government higher secondary schools are vacant.

Sources in the elementary and secondary education department told Dawn here on Sunday that 89 middle, high and higher secondary schools lacked library, 140 schools were short of computer labs, 53 of science labs and 109 of examination halls.

The sources said 22 posts of principals, 107 of science teachers, 229 of subject specialists, 58 of head masters, 148 of certified teachers, 35 of information technology and 20 of Qaris were lying vacant at the schools.

There are only two schools for special children in the district but they have no transport or boarding facility, the source said.

Three higher secondary schools for girls at Chakdara, Talash and Timergara are in dire need of reconstruction, they said, adding Hamqadam, a European Union project working on improvement of education infrastructure, had demolished the buildings of these schools in 2015 but reconstruction work was yet to be started.

PROBE SOUGHT: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl provincial general secretary Maulana Shujaul Mulk on Sunday demanded of the National Accountability Bureau to probe the alleged fund embezzlement in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa billion-tree tsunami project.

Addressing party workers at Ouch, he said there had been reports of irregularities and corruption in the billion-tree project but the PTI chief was silent on it.

Meanwhile, JUI-F acting provincial chief Mufti Kifayatullah has said six religio-political parties would contest the 2018 general elections under the banner of Muttahida Majlas-i-Amal.

Addressing party’s Lower Dir general body meeting at Balambat the other day he claimed that the MMA would form the next government in the province.

Mufti Kifayat asked the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to explain from what head the mosques’ khateebs were being paid.

PROTEST RALLY: Difa-i-Pakistan Council on Sunday held a protest rally at Samarbagh against the world silence on the atrocities in Held Kashmir.

The participants carrying banners and placards marched from Kambat to Samarbagh Bazaar. The speakers alleged that the Indian troops were assaulting Kashmiri women while more than 70,000 people had been martyred since 1984.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2018