MANSEHRA: The Oghi residents on Tuesday demanded of authorities to order an inquiry into the utilisation of funds by parent-teacher councils of girls’ schools in the tehsil.

“Almost all girls’ schools in our tehsil are without basic facilities though the government regularly releases funds to educational institutions for utilisation by their parent-teacher councils,” Mohammad Waqas told reporters in Oghi.

Accompanied by a group of locals, Mr Waqas said the government released funds to all school PTCs every year for building classrooms, boundary walls and toilets, doing minor repairs and buying furniture, but even then, the Oghi girls’ schools didn’t have those facilities.

He said PTCs had representation of the local community, parents of the students, and teachers.

Resident Akram Khan said all public sector schools had PTCs but no mechanism was in place to check how the development funds issued to them were utilised.

He said the schools also received special grants for putting up the requisite structures and buying classroom goods through the same councils, but things on the ground were miserable.

“Most schools are either without toilets or even if toilets are there, water shortages have led to their closure,” he said.

The residents demanded inquiry into the utilisation of PTC funds to find out irregularities and prevent them in future.

KILLED: A girl and a boy were killed in Pulrah area here early on Tuesday. Police called it an honour killing incident saying the girl’s family killed her and her ‘lover’ with batons after finding them in a room of their house in Taraki area.

SHO of the Pulrah police station Raja Sajid said the boy had gone to the girl’s house to meet her.

He said the police handed over the bodies to families after the completion of medico-legal formalities.

The SHO said the suspected killer, who was the girl’s cousin, was taken into custody afterwards.

He said the police registered an FIR of honour killings under sections 302 and 311 of the Pakistan Penal Code and began an investigation.

Also in the day, a man was killed by rivals over a land dispute here.

The police said Mohammad Zeeshan and his mother were attacked by gunmen Aurangzeb and his son, Mohammad Nisar, as the former worked in their agricultural fields.

They said they had begun a search for the attackers, who were at large.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2023