PESHAWAR, Nov 1: The NWFP Minister for Education and Information, Syed Imtiaz Hussain Gilani has said that Pakistan is passing through a critical juncture and the decisions of Gen Pervez Musharraf are aimed at protecting the larger interest of the nation.

Speaking at the annual parents and prize distribution ceremony of Pakistan International Public School and College, Abbottabad, on Thursday, he said that “Pakistan has given us a lot and we have got to love it and nourish it.”

Fifteen new degree colleges have been opened and three all-purpose universities established in a short span of two years in vacant or under-utilized government buildings, he said

Of these, one is Hazara University in the nearby Dhodyal. He emphasized that parents should not feel themselves relieved of their duties once they have got their children admitted to the educational institutions.

“Rather,” said the minister, “they should keep watch on the progress their wards are making.” The government is strengthening parents-teachers associations for the purpose, he said, urging parents not to leave their children at the mercy of the institutions alone.

Over the six months that I am in charge of the ministry, the teachers came to me and always talked about their salaries, promotions, postings and transfers but never about the students and education, the minister lamented.

I have pointed out to all concerned that everyone in the education department, from minister to teacher and down to a peon, owes his position to the students, he said.

“It is due to the students that we are, and not the other way round,” he remarked.

He also called upon the students to value the opportunity they had got to learn and make their future and realize how difficult it is for their parents to arrange money to get them education. They must not let the effort and the large sums spent on their education go waste.