FBISE SSC Part-II result 2010

FBISE SSC result
Islamabad, June 28: The Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) would announce results of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Part-II on Tuesday. The result will be available on the Federal Board website www.fbise.edu.pk. The landline numbers regarding results inquiring are 0519250651, 0519250666 and 0519250608.

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NIP beneficiaries demand regularisation
Islamabad: Thousands of the unemployed educated students, benefiting the National Internship Programme (NIP), are doomed to be rendered unemployed after one-year placement in different public sector organizations, demanding of the government to strategise their regularization.

The government's internship program, aimed at providing employment opportunity to the fresh graduates is said to be a blessing but woes of the beneficiaries start adding as one-year period of their placement nears ending.

Though some of the internees get absorbed in the very offices, thousands of them are dragged to unemployment owing to non- availability of funds or vacancies who doubt their future amidst prevailing unemployment situation.

According to Economic Survey of Pakistan 2010, "The global economic turmoil has created unemployment around the world and in Pakistan 2.93 million of the work force is unemployed. Mismatch in job and skills as well as the temporary nature of most jobs is problematic."

The first phase of National Internship Program (NIP) has been completed, placing 25,826 applicants at federal, provincial and district government levels. Second phase of NIP was launched in February 2008. A total of 71,915 applications were received. So far 21,138 applications have been verified by HEC and NADRA and are being placed.

"Nearly half a million of youth have to seek jobs every year and we need to increase skilled work force to enable them to get employment," according to Minister for Youth Affairs Shahid Hussain Bhutto.

Commenting on the situation, Zeeshan Arif, an internee placed at Pak Secretariat here, said the internees feel their future imperilled because of no hope for another job opportunity.

"Though it is good opportunity to gain experience in relevant field, its impermanence undermines its benefit. Thousands of the students, earning Rs10,000 per months have either to go back home or to rely on their parents," he said.

The internees also complain of discriminatory treatment in various offices and that they are taken as burden.

Proposing the solution, Zaheer Ahmed, another internee, said, "The internees should undergo a test prior to completion of their placement period for their regularization. It should be the responsibility of the host organization to allocate budget and create vacancies for the NIP beneficiaries."

When contacted, the spokesman of the ministry said basic objective of NIP is to provide students an experience in the relevant field, paving way for another job in the future, though some of them are absorbed at the very offices.

To question, he said the ministry cannot direct the concerned organizations for their regularization as any such decision would be subject to the availability of funds and vacancies.

However, he said the youth ministry is going to launch a small business scheme for unemployed youth across the country. Under the program, the government would bear initial cost of the business and both the literate and illiterate youngsters will be eligible to avail the facility.

The Economic Survey suggests that youth should be absorbed productively well before the period when old age dependency threatens this potential. "Consider that the labour force is growing every year but the opportunities for employment are declining and that too at a fast rate." Unemployment rate decreased to 5.2 percent in 2007-08 from 6.2 percent in 2006-07. However it has increased to 5.5 percent during 2008-09, states the Survey.

The official indicators show that the government has targeted to provide internship to 80,000 educated youth by 2013 against target of 30,000 in current fiscal, but according to the economic experts, a workable solution for their permanent induction would bring an end to frustration.

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QAU students facing acute water shortage
Islamabad: The students residing at the hostels of Quad-e-Azam University (QAU) are facing acute water shortage as the Capital Development Authority (CDA) these days has cut down water supply to almost half of the normal supply.

There are seven hostels on the premises of the university campus, which include three for girls and four for boys. With the increase in temperature, the demand for portable water has increased manifold but the supply of water in the university campus is not enough to fulfil requirements of the students.

According to the information, looking into the options of installing tube-wells to meet the water requirement of students, the Earth Sciences Department of the University has recently conducted a survey. The results of the survey revealed that the underground waterbed was too low to install tube-wells.

It was only few days ago when the students of MPhil and PhD students had staged protest against the acute shortage of water in the university hostels. The students were of the view that the shortage accompanied by frequent power cut downs has made their lives quite hard especially now-a-days when they were taking examinations.

QAU VC Dr Masoom Yasin Zai had assured students that water supply would be restored very soon, however, it never happened and the students are still facing the same issue of water scarcity.

QAU spokesperson Nadeem Yasir said that it was true that hostel students were facing the problem of water shortage these days but they were not getting enough supply from CDA these days. "We are looking into the matter and have asked CDA to increase water supply in the university campus so that the requirements of students residing at hostels could be fulfilled," he said.

On the other hand Capital Development Authority (CDA) spokesperson Ramzan Sajid said they were giving alternative day water supply in the city but this supply was more than enough to meet the daily requirement of portable water. "As far as QAU is concerned, it is getting water from multiple sources including Simly Dam, Khanpur Dam and Korang which should be enough to fulfil the requirements of the students," he said.

Sajid said that the shortage of water was the internal affair of the university, as the management was not distributing water properly. "Even the alternative day supply could be more than enough if it is distributed and utilised properly," he said.

He said that CDA was supplying 58 million gallon water per day in the capital city and they have enough water reservoirs to fulfil water requirements till 29th July. "The monsoon would start from July 1st after which the water supply would be increased," he added.

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Summer vacation and 'Chappar' hotels in capital
Islamabad: With the start of summer vacation in academic institutions, business of 'chappar' hotels and kiosks affected a lot in the capital because major chunk of their sale depends on students, especially in the vicinity of universities and colleges in Sectors H-8 and H-9.

Roadside hotels and kiosks usually sell tea, cold drinks, biscuits, cigarettes and some of them also serve proper food to their clients who are usually daily-wage labourers and taxi drivers, but the major part of their business depends on students because numerically they are the largest customers for them.

Faqeer Muhammad Khan, the owner of a 'chappar' hotel in Sector H-9, said: "Our business depends on the students of National University of Modern Languages (NUML) and Federal Government College for Men in Sector H-9. Since the start of summer vacation in these academic institutions, our sale is declining fast. We are six people working in the hotel and during summer vacation it becomes tough to manage even salaries for all."

Samiullah, a kiosk owner in Sector H-9/1, said: "During long vacation, this area becomes deserted, which affects my business drastically. When universities are open, my earning fluctuates between Rs4,000-5,000 per day. It gets reduced to Rs1,000 per day during holidays in academic institutions".

Another owner of a 'chappar' hotel, Muhammad Zareef Abbasi, said: "We are running business here since 1990. There is a 70% reduction in our earnings during vacation each year. These days, we are hardly earning Rs2,000 per day. Whereas our earning is usually more than Rs10,000 during normal days. We are seven people working here and we all belong to Murree."

He said that the site for the hotel was given to his brother on half rent on the quota of disabled persons during Benazir Bhutto's first tenure. "There are seven workers, including cooks and waiters, and we are paying Rs6,000 per month to each one of them on an average. We have to pay Rs700 to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) at the end of every month, besides paying electricity and gas bills of the hotel," he added.

"We are thinking of closing down our hotel for two months because we are going in a loss," he concluded. Muhammad Ayaz, who runs a kiosk in Sector I-8, said: "We find our expenditures crossing our income during summer vacation after paying utility bills, CDA rent (Rs2,000 per month) and salaries of employees." The news

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No regular meeting of madressah reforms committee
Islamabad: The madressah reforms committee constituted by the government after launching an education policy in September last year has not met on a regular basis because government officials or madressah representatives on the committee did not turn up at the meeting.

A senior government official said that over the past few months, the committee could not hold a single meeting largely because of Interior Minister Rehman Malik's preoccupation with security issues or his absence from the country and occasionally because of madressah representatives' foreign visits.

Under the new education policy, the interior division has been given the task of madressah reforms. Earlier, it was with the education ministry which did not achieve any result.

The official said there was a clear lack of interest on both sides; the government and office-bearers of the Ittihad-i-Tanzeemati Madaris Pakistan (ITMP), a representative body of five madressah boards.

ITMP's spokesperson Qari Mohammad Hanif Jalandhry, who heads the Wafaqul Madaris, is on a visit to the UK these days. Similarly, ITMP General Secretary Mufti Munib-ur-Rehman is on a visit to the Philippines.

"I can recall that since March a number of meetings of the madressah reforms committee were scheduled, only to be cancelled, because its members expressed their inability to attend on the given dates," the official said.

After 9/11, madressah reforms have been in the news, because of seminaries' alleged role in fanning religious extremism in the country. In 2001, Gen Pervez Musharraf promulgated an ordinance to set up the Pakistan Madressah Education Board in the country. However, the plan was shelved because representatives of the five madressah boards refused to operate under the board. The education ministry spent millions of rupees in the name of madressah reforms during 2001-2007, but eventually recommended closure of the project.

The PPP-led government decided in March 2008 to shift madressah reforms from the education ministry to interior division, and a formal decision in this regard was announced in September 2009 with the unveiling of the new education policy.

Since then Interior Minister Rehman Malik could hold only a couple of meetings of the committee which were for setting the agenda. However, it largely failed to initiate the long-awaited reforms, the official said.

The official said: "The project has only been parked in the interior ministry, as I don't see anything significant happening there".

On the other hand, the task of madressah reforms is getting far more challenging with an unprecedented increase in the overall enrolment of seminaries. Late last year, the ITMP which has over 20,000 registered madressahs, registered a 40 per cent increase in the number of their students.

Wafa-qul-Madaris Al-Arabia which belongs to the Deobandi school has over 12,000 seminaries with around 2.5 million students. Rabata-ul-Madaris Al-Islamia which is run by Jamaat-i-Islami has 632 madressahs on its list with 90,000 students. Wafa-qul-Madaris Alsalfia of the Ahl-e-Hadith school has 466 registered madressahs with a total enrolment of over 55,000. Tanzeem-ul-Madaris of the Brelvi school has over 6,000 registered seminaries and 120,000 students.

Wafa-qul-Madaris Ashia, a madressah board belonging to the Shia school has 507 madressahs with over 10,000 students. Dawn

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