وہی ہوا جس کاخدشہ اور ڈر تھا ۔ اکثریتی عوام نے کرونا وائرس کو مذاق سمجھتے ہوئے سازشی باتوں کا روایتی انداز اپنا کر حفاظتی اقدامات اور حکومتی ہدایات کو نظرانداز کیا اور اس کا نتیجہ یہ نکلا کہ پاکستان بالخصوص خیبرپختونخوا میں کیسز متاثرین اور اموات کی تعداد میں غیر معمولی اضافہ سامنے آیا ۔ جب کہ مئی کو خطرناک مہینہ قرار دیا جارہا ہے ۔ اتوار 19 اپریل کو ایک ہی دن پاکستان میں چوبیس اموات واقع ہوئیں ۔جس کے بعد ملک میں کل اموات کی تعداد 197 ہوگئی جبکہ مجموعی تصدیق شدہ کیسز یا متاثرین کی تعداد 9505 ہوگئی۔ یہ اس جانب اشارہ ہیں کہ اموات اور کیسز کی تعداد میں کئی گنا اضافہ ہونے لگا ہے اور اگر ہمارے لوگ اب بھی اس عالمی وبا ءکو سازش اور مذاق سمجھتے رہے تو آئندہ چند دنوں یا ہفتوں میں صورتحال خطرناک شکل اختیار کرجائے گی۔
اتوار 25 اپریل کے روز خیبرپختونخوا میں دس اموات ہوئیں جس کے بعد صوبے میں کل اموات کی تعداد 67 ہوگئی جبکہ وائرس سے متاثرہ افراد کی تعداد 1235 ہوئی۔ پشاور اموات کی تعداد کے لحاظ سے سرفہرست رہا جبکہ سوات کا دوسرا نمبر رہا۔
اتوار کے روز جاری کردہ سرکاری رپورٹ کے مطابق خیبرپختونخوا میں دس، سندھ میں 8، پنجاب میں 5 اور بلوچستان میں 3 نئی ہلاکتیں سامنے آئیں تھیں۔ یاد رہے کہ پاکستان کے چاروں صوبوں میں آبادی کے لحاظ سے خیبرپختونخوا تیسرے نمبر پر ہے۔ پنجاب کی آبادی باقی تین صوبوں کی مجموعی آبادی سے زیادہ ہے اس تناظر میں اگر صورتحال کا جائزہ لیا جائے تو ثابت یہ ہوتا ہے کہ خیبر پختونخواہ کرونا وائرس کے نتیجے میں سب سے زیادہ متاثر ہوا اور دوسرے صوبے بوجوہ خیبر پختونخوا کے مقابلے میں نسبتاً بہتر حالت میں ہے۔
ابھی تک صوبائی حکومت یہ بتانے سے قاصر یا غافل نظر آرہی ہے کہ خیبر پختونخوا میں زیادہ اموات اور متاثرین کے بنیادی اسباب کیا ہیں اور تعداد بڑھتی کیوں جا رہی ہے۔ حکومت کی تمام تر توجہ بریفنگ دینے اور عوام سے اپیلیں کرنے پر مرکوز ہے حالانکہ کیسز کی تعداد اور اموات کی شرح میں اضافے کے اسباب کا سراغ لگانا انتہائی ضروری امر ہے اور اگر اس کی وجہ عوام کی غیر ذمہ داری یا بد احتیاطی ہے تو نتائج کی پرواہ کیے بغیر سخت ترین اقدامات کیے جائیں ۔
یہ دعویٰ یا جملہ زمینی حقائق کے برعکس محض خود کو دھوکہ دینے کے مترادف ہیں کہ حالات تسلی بخش ہیں ۔ یہ بیانیہ بھی خطرناک ہے کہ دوسرے ممالک کے مقابلے میں پاکستان میں اموات یا متاثرین کی تعداد کم ہیں۔
بل گیٹس سمیت تین دیگر طبی اداروں کے عالمی سربراہان نے پیر 20اپریل کے روز کہا کہ کرونا وائرس کی ویکسین آئندہ برس کی آخر تک تیار ہوسکے گی ۔ اس کا واضح مطلب یہ ہیں کہ اس لمبے عرصے کے دوران اگر اس وبا ءپر قابو نہ پایا جا سکا اور اس کے پھیلنے کی یہ شرح برقرار رہی تو پاکستان جیسے ممالک اور معاشرے کیلئے صورتحال پر قابو پانا مشکل ہو جائے گا اور ہم اپنے جغرافیائی مسائل، معاشی بحران اور انتظامی کمزوریوں کے علاوہ بڑی آبادی جیسے عوامل کے باعث بدترین حالات سے دوچار ہوجائیں گے۔
اب تک جو عالمی تحقیقات سامنے آئی ہیں ان کو سامنے رکھ کر ہی ہم اپنا کوئی حفاظتی لائحہ عمل ترتیب دے سکتے ہیں۔ امریکا ، اٹلی فرانس اور ایسے دیگر ممالک نے ہماری طرح بداحتیاطی کا مظاہرہ کرکے عوامی سرگرمیوں کے پیش نظر سخت اقدامات اور لاک ڈاؤن سے گریز کیا جس کا نتیجہ ہزاروں ہلاکتوں اور لاکھوں نئے کیسز کی شکل میں نکل آیا جبکہ چین ، روس ، بھارت ، بنگلہ دیش ، سعودی عرب اور یو اے ای اے نے روزمرہ کے معاملات کے اثرات کی پرواہ نہ کرتے ہوئے سخت اقدامات اُٹھائے اور صورتحال پر قابو پانے میں کامیاب رہے ۔ معاشی اثرات اپنی جگہ مگر اس وباء سے بچنے کا واحد طریقہ یہ ہے کی سخت اقدامات کئے جائیں اور جو لوگ تعاون نہیں کر رہے ان سے سختی کے ساتھ نمٹا جائے۔ کراچی اور لاہور کی آبادی پشاور سے کئی گنا زیادہ ہے ان کے مقابلے میں چند روز کے دوران پشاور میں 30 سے زائد اموات اور صوبے میں 60 سے زائد اموات نہ صرف عوام اور حکومت کے لیے سوالیہ نشان ہے بلکہ یہ اس جانب سے واضح اشارہ اور پیغام ہے کہ دو تین مہینوں کی آگاہی مہم ،حکومتی ہدایات اور جزوی لاک ڈاؤن جیسے اقدامات پر عوام نے حقیقی معنوں میں مؤثر عمل نہیں کیا جو کہ بڑی خطرناک بات ہے۔
چند روز بعد رمضان کا آغاز ہوگا جس کے بعد مساجد اور بازاروں میں عوام کے ہجوم میں غیرمعمولی اضافے کا راستہ ہموار ہوجائے گا اس لیے ضرورت اس بات کی ہے کہ سماجی، مذہبی اور حکومتی سطح پر اس صورتحال کا سنجیدہ نوٹس لے کر حفاظتی تدابیر کو یقینی بنایا جائے۔
Pink bus project failed in KP due to lack of planning and political meddling
The Pink Bus service was started by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in Mardan and Abbotabad district in April 2019. It was touted as a game changer enabling women to travel independently within city acquitting them from the hassle of public transport. In male dominant society, where women are usually not allowed to go out of their homes independently due to various reasons including fear of harassment in local buses, Pink Bus Project emerge as a breath of the fresh air.
Pink Bus Project also known as Sakura Women Bus Service was started by The KP government and Mass Transit Department with an estimated cost of $1.79 million. The project was initiated with the financial assistance of Government of Japan and technical assistance of UNOPS and UN women. The move was greatly hailed by the local women and female students who regularly faces harassment during travelling. It was an important development and would have certainly contributed towards women freedom if planned properly. However, it is very sad to see that the initiative was short lived and has come to a halt due to various reasons.
Initially when Japan government donated these 14 buses back in May 2018, KP government decided to incorporate it in BRT Peshawar for women commuters. However, due to delay in BRT, KP government announced to launch these buses as an independent project in Mardan and Abbottabad. The project was officially launched by Mushtaq Ghani in April 2018 in both districts.
The Project was launched based on political consideration without any prior planning or long-term sustenance measures. Pink bus project neither had a proper route plan based on scientific data to facilitate maximum women commuters nor had requisite planning. Furthermore, the buses were parked in Peshawar for at least one year before the launching ceremony and according to the sources in the management, condition of the buses has deteriorated significantly due to non-maintenance. KP government spent millions to repair all 14 buses for the project.
The project was also marred by political meddling. While talking to us on phone, a senior official revealed that the PTI-led government and its MPAs were directly interfering in the matters of the management which was also one of the main reason for its failure.
The official claimed that a female MPA hailing from Mardan, a co-owner of private schools, had forced the pink bus management to permanently reserve four of the buses for her schools but the management had refused. However, a former provincial Minister forced the management to provide these buses as he had shares in those schools.
After some time, management realized that the project was going in loss due to poor route planning and less commuters. They asked the concerned officials to allow men commuters to travel in the buses truly putting a question mark on the status of the project. Women commuters traveling on pink buses dramatically reduced after permission was given to men commuters. This has practically put an end to the project transforming it into ordinary government owned buses with pink color without any facilitation for women.
Though the aim of this project was to ensure provision of safe, cheap, reliable, and harassment-free journey for women travelers, it miserably failed to deliver and has caused significant loss to government exchequer. All the buses are now parked and the KP government is paying no attention towards this project. It has put a huge question mark on KP government competence and capabilities. Reportedly, Japan government has also showed annoyance on the closure of the project badly affecting credibility of the KP government. KP government needs to realize that for a success of any project, long term planning alongwith sustenance is necessary to ensure its durability.
Challenges faced by women politicians in KP
Pakistani society is male dominated, where women face numerous challenges to pursue a professional career in any field including politics. In order to ensure equal opportunity and due representation, government has allocated specific seats for women in lower and upper house of parliament. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly, 26 seats out of 114 are reserved for women. Similarly, in other provinces, seats are reserve for women according to their population. Other than reserve seats, women are also allowed to contest election on general seats. However, due to patriarchal society, women face numerous challenges to contest elections on general seats.
If we take a look at current assembly of KP, all women MPAs are on reserve seats except one female politician Samar Bilour. She belongs to famous Bilour family and is the widow of Haroon Bilour, killed alongwith 25 others in a suicide attack while campaigning for Elections 2018. ANP fielded Samar Bilour to contest from PK-78, the provincial assembly seat, where her husband was planning to contest. Samar Bilour won the seat in by-elections. Overall, lack of women politician on general seats indicates that our society has not evolved fully to accept women as their political representative. In entire electoral history of KP, only three women i.e Samar Bilour (ANP), Naseem Wali Khan (ANP) and Ghazal Habib Tanoli (QWP) have managed to win a general seat. The political parties are also reluctant to allocate general seats to women due to rural voters’ preference for male contestants and Pashtun cultural barriers.
When asked on the issue, Samar Bilour said that, “My main challenge was getting a ticket and accepted as a serious contender in this Pashtun society, as the mantra was that no one will vote for a woman in Peshawar contesting from the general seat.”
In order to address the issue and force parties to award tickets to women on general seats, Elections Act of 2017 was introduced to make it mandatory for all political parties to set aside at least five per cent tickets of general seats for women. Despite government efforts, due to cultural barriers and various challenges, very less women opted for general election seats.
When a sitting PTI MPA Sumaira Shams was asked to comment on the issue, she said that “I got a ticket from my party but society over here did not let me contest as they pressurized my widow mother to talk me out from contesting on general seat or conduct election campaign. Numerous Jirgas came to our house and demoralized me that nobody will vote for woman and you should not run for election on general seat. Finally, I had to leave that ticket without contesting due to extreme social pressure.”
Shagufta Malik, an MPA of KP Assembly, highlighting another challenge, said that “For running elections campaign, one needs to be financially strong and independent. Due to financial issues and dependence on male counterpart, mostly women cannot contest. Even if a woman manage to contest on general seat, the people do not vote for her due to social and cultural reasons.”
Besides these challenges, women politicians are also ignored in cabinet where their male counterparts are generally preferred for coveted ministries and appointments. If we see the current provincial assembly of KP, there is no female minister in the cabinet nor any female MPA advisor. This shows that, political parties generally prefer male candidates either due to their election on general seat or cultural and social preferences. In both cases, women MPAs are at disadvantage and set to lose more.
MPA Sumaira Shams drawing our attention to another issue said that, “We female get very less chance and time to speak in assembly, male is more dominant and they take more time to speak, even Speaker Assembly isn’t able to divide the time equally among both gender’’, she added that “mostly male colleagues try to suppress us if we raise any question or give some suggestions regarding any bill under discussion”. The same attitude highlighted by MPA Sumaira Shams was on display for entire country during a heated discussion between MNA Khwaja Asif (PMLN) and MNA Shireen Mazari (PTI) on an issue where the latter was targeted for her appearance. There have been other various such incidents in national and provincial assemblies where women MPA were targeted due to their gender.
Despite these challenges, women have come a long way and have reclaim a considerable space within political sphere. However, conscious effort is required from government, political parties and society to allow women to claim their rightful place within country politics. Women should also step up to carve their space and must not be discouraged by the challenges at hand.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government education reforms is a breath of fresh air
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government once again went a step ahead in bringing education reforms as the Elementary and Secondary Education Department (ESED) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa initiated implementation of E-transfer policy of teachers.
The process was initiated as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for ESED Akbar Ayub started approval of e-transfer applications through the online procedure. According to Akbar Ayub, the E-transfer policy for transfers and posting of teachers has been launched to improve service delivery and ensure transparency in the procedure.
Under this policy, he said registration of 15,000 teachers seeking transfers and posting were made. He further said that vacancies of around 11000 teachers were vacant and 22,000 more teachers would be recruited in KP by June this year.
Meanwhile, this move of KP government has been admired by number of educationists terming it a positive step to make the education system more transparent and get rid of political influence in transfers or postings of teachers.
As per the policy, all the teachers would have easy access to the online App specifically introduced for the transfers and postings of the teachers. According to reports the positions would be uploaded on the App at the commencement of the academic year and the teachers would be asked to apply for their desired locations. As per the reports, this year, a total of 10,858 teachers data was uploaded out of which only 2093 postings or transfer applications were received.
However, a leading educationist, Sadeema Bano suggested that the government should extend this policy to the remaining parts of the province including the newly formed tribal districts as these are not included in the policy reforms. She said that like the developed countries, the KP government is striving to change approach towards education and make education easier.
She further stated that as a teacher she has witnessed widespread corruption in education sector during ANP’s tenure. She hoped that this move of the KP government will pave way for further such policies to ensure better education system.
It is pertinent to mention that the reforms in education has always been a top slogan of PTI government during pre-election campaign. The government has remained true to its words and have taken various positive steps to transform KP education sector.
Such innovative changes and a shift towards modernity have restored public faith in government education institutes. The basic problem in education was political interference but KP government has taken various steps to eliminate such interference. Moreover, as part of reforms, the introduction of the biometric system has also helped eradicate absenteeism of teachers. Hundreds of teachers who were found truant from their duties were punished, while hard-working, committed and performing teachers were regularly rewarded.
As per Alif Ailaan’s composite school infrastructure assessment in its District Education Rankings 2017 report, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s overall score registered an increase from 66.18 to a remarkable 91.12 at the primary level between the years 2013 and 2016. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is at the top of the primary school infrastructure index across different provinces and territories. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is at the second spot in the middle school infrastructure index after Punjab with a score of 89.25.
According to the data available with Alif Ailaan before 2013, there were only 170 IT labs in secondary and higher secondary schools across the province. Now this number has been increased to more than 1,340 IT labs. 100 interactive white boards have also been installed in schools in 14 Districts with a backup of solar panels. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ESED and Provincial IT Board are launching an early age programming course in the IT labs of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government schools for class 7 to 9.
Besides many other achievements the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa education department has sustained and deepened the concept of merit in the recruitment of teachers during the past few years by not just conducting the test through a third party, National Testing Service (NTS), but also school-based recruitment of teachers to ensure rationalised deployment.
More than 65,000 teachers have been trained since 2013 with an allocation of Rs. 800 million for better student learning outcomes. Training sessions have been outsourced to multiple vendors and the government has an agreement in place with the British Council to train nearly 83,000 teachers of primary schools with a special focus on important subjects.
According to the research conducted by Alif Ailaan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the only province in Pakistan that has consistently allocated budgets much higher than the baseline by allocating amounts between 24% and 28% of the budget each year for the education sector.
It is important to mention that despite massive investment, there is still a lot to be done in education sector to ensure literacy rate at par with developed nations. Though it is heartening to see Khyber Pakhtunkhwa focusing on education sector, one hopes that the trend would continue and other provinces would also allocate more funds for education sector.