HYDERABAD: The district chapter of Jamaat-i-Islami and the local trader community have strongly opposed the proposed shifting of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), Hyderabad, to Jamshoro.

The JI organised a protest demonstration outside the board’s office while the trader community held a meeting here on Monday to express its reservations over the proposal.

Participants of the JI rally were carrying banners and placards inscribed with the slogans against proposed shifting of the board. They kept raising slogans against the move and the provincial government.

The demonstration was led by JI Hyderabad district emir Hafiz Tahir Majeed, his predecessor Mushtaq Ahmed Khan, Aqeel Ahmed Khan, Abdul Qayyum Shaikh, Syed Nasir Kazmi, Hanif Sheikh and the party’s youth wing leader Irfan Kaimkhani.

Hafiz Majeed said that shifting of the board from Hyderabad to the far flung area of Jamshoro was being resorted to with a mala fide intention.

He said that from the administrative point of view also, it would be an unwise decision.

According to him, Hyderabad city doesn’t have a fully-fledged general university nor does it have a medical or an engineering college. The BISE’s presence in this city was not being liked by the Sindh chief minister and certain biased PPP ministers, he claimed.

The JI leader said that the present location of the BISE was beneficial to the students belonging to all parts of the Hyderabad division.

He described its shifting as a conspiracy against students, and said that the JI would keep resisting the move. He rejected the pretext of BISE building’s old construction for its shifting. “It’s just a lame excuse and nothing else,” he said.

Hafiz Tahir argued that funds amounting to millions of rupees were available for the repair and maintenance of the building as countless students were paying fees for the process of their cases and documents. These funds should be utilised to rehabilitate the building if it was really in a dilapidated condition, he stressed.

Separately, the local trader community’s gathering was addressed by Adeel Siddiqui, the coordinator of FPCCI’s Businessmen Panel Progressive.

Speaking to the participants, he rejected the proposal of the board’s shifting to Jamshoro.

He said such a move would be a violation of the rights of students, and urged the government to review its decision.

He said that all boards of education in Sindh were located within their respective divisional headquarters.

Members of the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI) executive committee also expressed their concern over the proposal, saying that it would cast a bad impact on education and employment opportunities of local people.

Adeel Siddiqui said that the Hyderabad BISE was the ‘mother board’ established in 1962. The boards in Nawabshah, Mirpurkhas and Larkana were established later. He added that Hyderabad division comprised nine districts and over 0.2m students were enrolled in BISE, 65pc of whom belonged to the Hyderabad district alone.

He said the decision to shift the Hyderabad board would cause administrative disruption and create serious transportation

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2025