PESHAWAR: The false information provided by the elementary and secondary education department to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday left members of the treasury benches red-faced.

The house was also informed that two government girls’ schools on the outskirts of the provincial capital were occupied by security forces for ‘security reasons’, while the third one was vacated by them a month ago.

Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani chaired the session.

The education department shared wrong information with the house in its reply to the question of ANP MPA Salahuddin Khan Momand.

Through a question, the lawmaker had inquired about the status of the Government Girls High School Khawaja Pir Kaly, Government Girls High School Mashogagar and Government Girls Middle School Mashogagar, which were bombed by militants in 2013.

CM adviser announces action against officials for misreporting bombed schools are functional

In a written reply to the house, the education department claimed that the bombed schools were functional.

However, Mr Momand rejected the claim saying the education department has deceived the house.

“I can take you to the sites of the schools right now, where you will find only the debris of the school buildings,” he told adviser to the chief minster on elementary and secondary education department Ziaullah Bangash.

He declared the education department’s information a ‘blatant lie’ and said providing incorrect information to the house was a violation of KP Assembly Procedure and Conduct of Business Rules, 1988, and breach of the privilege of the house.

“I will take action against the relevant officials for giving false reply to the question of the lawmaker,” CM adviser Bangash announced.

He said the United States Agency for International Development had released funds for the construction of the schools in question and even a tender had been floated in newspapers for the award of contract.

The adviser said those schools were destroyed by militants in 2013 and one of them was inaugurated a day before it was bombed.

MPA Mohmand told Dawn that girls education was severely hit by the deployment of the Frontier Constabulary in their schools in his constituency, PK-71.

He said FC had occupied the Government Girls High School Salmankhel and Government Girls Primary School Darwazgai Mattani, while the Government Girls High School Shaikh Mohammadi was vacated by them a month ago.

The lawmaker said poor girls of his constituency couldn’t get education, while those, who could afford transport, had taken admission to a girls school in Badabher, which was some 10 kilometers away.

He wondered how the PTI government had imposed education emergency when it failed to construct schools destroyed by militants a decade ago.

The opposition benches also came down hard on the National Accountability Bureau for arresting Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani.

Speaking on a point of order, leader of the opposition Mohammad Akram Khan Durrani said the arrest of the Sindh Assembly’s speaker was based on mala fide intention.

“We are not against accountability but the NAB should not be used for political victimisation,” he said.

He also criticised Prime Minister Imran Khan for not uttering a single word about the arrest of an assembly speaker and making a hue and cry over the arrest of KP director (archaeology) Abdul Samad Khan.

PPP MPAs Sher Azam Wazir and Nighat Orakzai also criticised NAB over the arrest of the Sindh Assembly’s speaker.

Law minister Sultan Mohammad Khan tabled the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2019, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Powers of Attorney (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which was passed by the house afterward.

The chair adjourned the session until Tuesday (today).

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2019