KARACHI: Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Wednesday announced 150 sit-ins across Pakistan on October 23 as part of the third phase of the party’s movement against the petroleum levy.
He also announced Education Cards for children in Karachi towns under JI’s municipal administration, saying quality education was a basic right of every child and a responsibility of the state.
He was speaking at the inauguration of Abu Turab School and Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan Tech Space, along with the formal inauguration of 70 roads and 300 streets in Gulberg Town. Hafiz Naeem said JI had effectively highlighted the problems faced by ordinary people and would resume its protests against the government over the petroleum levy from Friday.
Announcing the Education Card initiative, he said the party had decided to introduce the facility in Karachi’s towns where it held municipal responsibilities. He stressed that providing free and quality education was the government’s duty, not an act of charity. He said he was pleased to see a banner reading “admissions closed” outside a government school in Liaquatabad in a social media post. He said this showed that parents were willing to send their children to government schools when quality education was available.
He said JI had prioritized education and health, adding that school buildings were being upgraded, parks improved, open gyms established and rainwater harvesting projects undertaken. The JI chief called for expanding the Education Card project across Karachi to help children from poor and middle-class families access education. He said many parents struggled to pay school fees after meeting the rising costs of electricity, gas and house rent.
He said the government was responsible for ensuring education for children aged five to 17 and that public schools must be made functional, reliable and capable of providing quality education. He said public education was funded through taxes paid by the people, and the money collected by the national exchequer was a public trust that should be spent on welfare, education, health and other basic needs.
Questioning the use of the huge education budget, he said people wanted to know why their tax money was not being spent on their children’s future. While the wealth, bank balances, vehicles and official perks of certain sections of society continued to grow, he added, children from ordinary families remained deprived of quality education. He said the reported 52 percent failure rate among class ninth students in Punjab raised serious questions about the performance of the education system.
Speaking on the occasion, JI Karachi chief Monem Zafar said providing quality education to every child was a fundamental responsibility of the state. He said the establishment and improvement of model schools, including the newly inaugurated Abu Turab School and Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan Tech Space, were part of the party’s efforts to improve education. He criticized the outsourcing and privatisation of schools, saying JI was working to improve government schools despite its limited resources.
The JI leader said the nine towns under JI’s administration had restored 60 schools over the past three years. He said 7.8 million children in Sindh were out of school, calling the situation alarming. He added that 63 percent of schools in the province lacked water facilities, 51 percent had no boundary walls and 25 percent lacked proper washrooms for boys and girls.
Monem Zafar further said that during the incumbent provincial government’s long tenure, the number of schools without boundary walls had risen from 4,500 to 5,500, calling for serious and effective measures to improve the education system.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026