War-mongering extremists, such as; Taliab , Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and so on, realize the importance of education better than successive governments, that is why, banned organizations have targeted schools. In contrast, the successive governments fail to accomplish their pledges to advance education or even to rescue the barren education landscape. Pakistan is a signatory member of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and as per the Article 26 of Declaration, it is mandatory for all members to arrange free education for children. Also, Article 25 A of the constitution insists that all Pakistani citizens aged between 5 and 16 have the right to free and compulsory education. However, according to a statement by Alif Ailaan, there are an estimated 25 million children in the country, who ought to be attending schools, but are not or, rather, cannot. In this situation, government risks a large mass of population into unemployment, hunger, disease and poverty. Government is about acting, through focused planning before a situation arises, rather than reacting to a situation.
ABDULLAH AZIZ,
Karachi, December 20.