PESHAWAR: Akbar Ayub Khan, who was previously a minister for communications and works in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet and who was appointed provincial minister for elementary and secondary education in a reshuffle on Saturday, has turned out to be a matriculate.

Mr Khan served as the communication and works minister in Chief Minister Mehmood Khan’s cabinet for one-and-a-half years. However, when he was given the charge of the elementary and secondary education department some people began criticising the decision in their posts on social media platforms.

His nomination papers show that he has just passed the matric examinations.

When contacted, provincial Min­i­ster for Information Shaukat You­safzai defended Mr Khan’s appointment as a minister for elementary and secondary education and said that despite being just a matriculate he was “exceptionally qualified”.

Mr Yousafzai said Mr Khan was quite proficient in English and had been given the charge of the education department keeping in view his performance as the communication and works minister.

Provincial information minister says Akbar Khan qualified to run education department

He said that Mr Khan quit his studies when he was in the 12th grade and moved to Canada.

Even some illiterate people had served as education minister in the province and Mr Khan had the requisite experience to “show good results in the education sector”, added the information minister.

A senior government official Dawn spoke to agreed with Mr Yousafzai and said one should only look at a person’s experience to determine his or her worth.

A minister is assisted by a large number of officials in matters of policymaking and a minister’s degree does not make much difference.

He said that Mr Khan was “well-experienced” for the portfolio in question.

Ziaullah Bangash, who was Mr Khan’s predecessor in the education department had a Bachelor’s in arts, while Mohammad Atif Khan, who was education minister in former chief minister Pervez Khattak’s cabinet, had passed the intermediate examinations.

Akbar Ayub Khan entered politics after his elder brother Yousaf Ayub Khan, who was the communication and works minister in Mr Khattak’s cabinet, was disqualified in a fake degree case.

Mr Khan was elected as a lawmaker on the seat vacated by his brother and was given the charge of the portfolio earlier held by his brother.

In Pakistan Peoples Party’s government that ruled from 1993 to 96, the-then primary education minister Yousaf Khan Tarand was an illiterate. Pleading before an accountability court in a corruption case, Mr Tarand had said that he was unable to read summaries.

Interestingly, Mr Tarand’s son Taj Mohammad Khan Tarand was made a special assistant to the chief minister for prisons in the cabinet reshuffle on Saturday.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2020