ISLAMABAD: The opposition on Friday staged a walkout from the National Assembly after Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mehmood rejected the opposition’s demand for delaying matriculation and intermediate examinations and announced that the examinations in the federal capital and provinces would begin from Saturday (today).

The opposition said the future of over five million students of matric and intermediate’s first year was at stake as the students had failed to make preparations for examinations due to uncertainty in the government’s stance because of the Covid-19 situation.

Earlier, in his tweet, the education minister accused the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of playing politics with students to gain cheap popularity by demanding delay or postponement of examinations.

“People like Mr Ahsan Iqbal and Mr Saad Rafiq know that exams have already started in Balochistan and Sindh and, therefore, students in other provinces could not be treated differently.

Shafqat says exams all over the country will begin today

“They know that the decision to hold exams was taken unanimously by representatives of all federating units, including the PML-N government in the AJK, and the PPP in Sindh,” Mr Mehmood said, adding that the PML-N leaders also knew that students could not be promoted on the basis of previous exams as no exams had been held last year.

“Mr Saad Rafiq and Mr Ahsan Iqbal should know that for educating people, exams are the best measure to evaluate students’ ability and Class 12 is very important as students have to go to universities and professional colleges on the basis of HSC exam results,” Mr Mahmood said.

‘Only one board under federal govt’

The minister said that the two PML-N leaders should know that after the passage of the 18th Amendment, out of 30 educational boards, only one — the federal board — was under the federal government and yet they (the PML-N leaders) were pretending that one order from the federal minister could stop exams across the country.

The minister said that exams would start from Saturday in the remaining provinces and federating units. He wished all students appearing in the examinations a good luck.

The minister said that for those students who wanted more time for preparations for examinations, there was a chance of appearing in supplementary exams that would be held after two to three months by all boards.

On Thursday, the PML-N lawmakers had raised the issue of ongoing protests by students against matric and intermediate examinations in the National Assembly and asked the government to delay the examinations for one-and-a-half months to give more time to students for preparations.

But the government had rejected the opposition’s proposal, saying it was not possible as exams were about to commence in a day or two and students in Balochistan had already appeared in examinations whereas in Sindh exams were about to be over.

Overseas Pakistanis

Earlier, Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan informed the National Assembly that all stranded overseas Pakistanis would be brought back by July 20.

The minister said that special flights were being operated to bring back overseas Pakistanis stranded in Europe, the Middle East and other countries of the world due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Low-cost houses

Adviser to the PM on Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan informed the house that the government was constructing 45,000 low-cost houses of three and five marlas on a mortgage basis in the country.

He said the owners of these houses would have to pay banks’ house loans in 20 years in easy installments of Rs6,000, Rs8,000 and Rs10,000 per month.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2021