A two-member Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed heard the Suo moto notice case regarding non-construction of government Schools in quake-hit Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday. The top Court directed the KPK Government to reconstruct the Schools in six months’ time and submit a report. The court also summoned the Chairman Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) to appear in person on the next date of hearing. During the hearing, the bench asked the government why schools were not built in the quake-hit areas despite the release of billions of rupees funds after one and half decade. The Court observed that education was the lowest priority of the provincial government as there were still no signs of school construction despite the passing of sixteen years. The KP government blamed ERRA for not building schools. According to Advocate General KPK, the rehabilitation of the quake-hit areas was the responsibility of the ERRA. Provincial Advocate General further said that the KP government gained control of the affected areas in February 2020, which is an astonishing and unverified claim. However, the Court summoned Chairman ERRA at the next hearing to present his stance on the matter. The Court also expressed displeasure on the quality of construction of destroyed Schools by the ERRA and remarked that ERRA’s built Schools were no less than ghost bungalows. During the hearing, Advocate General KP informed the Court that the KPK had the highest literacy rate in the country, whereas the Court wondered how it happen if there were no schools and the education industry was expanding due to government negligence. The Court observed that the KP education department should be ashamed of its performance. The Apex Court has rightly observed that education was the lowest priority of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government because the PTI has been ruling the province for the last 8 years. Besides tall claims of bringing educational reforms and increase of educational budget during its tenure, the PTI government did not move ahead of words. The educational standard had witnessed more depletion due to no allocation of funds and appointment of blue-eyed individuals at the top slots. However, the retirement case of a School teacher Humaira bibi had rebirthed the issue of non-construction of Schools in the top Court and exposed the true faces of many learned educationists and Bureaucrats sitting in the big chairs.
