Education minister’s ‘prejudice’ towards varsity bills creates chaos in NA

ISLAMABAD: The prejudiced attitude of Education Minister Rana Tanvir Hussain over the issue of bills seeking to set up universities in the country on Tuesday created a chaotic situation in the National Assembly, compelling Deputy Speaker Zahid Akram Durrani to first announce a break and then adjourn the sitting without completing the counting process on a bill.

The minister faced an embarrassing situation when members of treasury benches through a voice vote opposed the bill moved by Tahira Aurangzeb of the ruling PML-N to set up Akhuwat Institute in Kasur despite his willingness to get it passed.

The members voted against the bill in reaction to the minister’s opposition to their similar bills on the ground that the house should not approve the bills to set up universities without completing codal formalities and seeking prior approval of the Higher Education Commission (HEC). The minister requested the deputy chairman to refer all the 13 introduced by the members earlier in the day seeking establishment of the universities, to the house committee concerned.

The house also witnessed a brief verbal clash between the minister and PPP’s Qadir Khan Mandokhel when the former opposed his bill to establish Babrak Institute of Science, Art and Technology Bill 2023 and the deputy chairman deferred it, seeing its opposition from the minister.

Assembly passes resolution to rename Gwadar airport after Feroz Khan Noon; dy speaker directs govt to renew all old arms licences

However, when Mr Durrani sought permission from the minister to allow the passage of the bill introduced by Ms Aurangzeb, he approved it. Mr Mandokhel protested over the minister’s act, terming it discriminatory and started shouting.

“Please let me do my work, I know my work in a better way,” said the minister while asking the deputy chairman to stop the PPP MNA from interfering in the process. However, when Mr Durrani put the bill for a voice vote and was about to declare its passage, Mr Mandokhel challenged his ruling and asked for a head count.

Mr Durrani ordered a headcount. When the assembly staff was busy in the headcount, not only the PPP members but also some PML-N members did not rise from their seats causing an embarrassing situation for the minister. The deputy speaker, however, saved the government from further embarrassment by announcing a 20-minute break for Zuhr prayers. After nearly an hour, Mr Durrani came to the house only to announce adjournment of the sitting till Wednesday morning (today).

Earlier, the house witnessed introduction of 14 private member’s bills, 13 of them seeking establishment of various universities in different parts of the country. The National Assembly had last week approved bills to establish 24 universities in a single day.

Taking the floor, the education minister said that he was not present on the day when the assembly had passed 24 bills otherwise he would have opposed them. Mr Tanvir regretted that universities were being run in a single room houses and the students faced hardships when the HEC refused to attest their degrees.

The minister indirectly taunted the members for tabling the universities bills, stating that he acknowledged the love of the members for education which was evident from the fact that many members were simultaneously seeking approval of the charters of four or five universities at a time.

At this point, the deputy speaker told the minister that there were 1,000 universities in Japan’s capital Tokyo and expressed his surprise over the minister’s act of opposing the setting up of universities. However, the minister said that he was not against the establishment of the universities and requested the chair to refer all the introduced bill to the house committee for further deliberations.

Arms licences

The members of the assembly once again raised the issue of the delay in renewal and issuance of arms licences. The deputy speaker then directed the interior ministry to renew all old arms licences, irrespective of their dates of issuance.

The National Assembly also passed three resolutions, including renaming of Gwadar International Airport as Feroz Khan Noon Airport and taking immediate steps to ensure payment of minimum wage to employees in public and private institutions.

Published in Dawn, Aug 2nd, 2023