Loud Thinking

Posts Tagged ‘free’

No Law (except in Islamabad Capital Territory & Sindh) in Punjab, KPK, Balochistan, GB & AJK, for poor students free education, in private schools.

Late last year Pakistan’s National Assembly passed a law for compulsory free education of 10% poor children in the near vicinity of private schools of Islamabad.

This year in February 13, the Sindh Provincial Assembly also passed the same law for compulsory free education of 30% poor children in the near vicinity of private schools in the entire Sindh Province. I had specifically requested for this 30% figure to President Asif Ali Zardari and it was very kind of him that he accepted my proposal.

It is very strange that no such law has been passed by the Provincial Assemblies of Punjab, KPK, Balochistan, GB and AJK governments.

Here, it must be noted that millions of school going age children are not able to join the schools in Pakistan, due to various reasons; and if these millions are ignored today, our future is guaranteed to be ruined tomorrow.

Already, Pakistan is the lowest ranked country in the field of education in the SAARC region.

IS THIS THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF ISLAMABAD OR OF PAKISTAN?

The National Assembly of Pakistan has at last unanimously passed the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Bill 2012; which is related to free and compulsory education for all the children from the age of five to sixteen, as a fundamental right; and its provision is a responsibility of the state. 

However, our NA passed the aforesaid bill which is only applicable to the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). Now the general public is right in  asking the question to the Pakistani National Assembly members, whether other areas of the country does not come under the Parliament? And why they have limited the partial and vital scope of the bill to the capital areas of Islamabad only. 

The bill also bounds private schools. to give free education to 10% of the poor children in the vicinity of their school. In India. this ratio is 25% and since, we are much behind India and all other SAARC nations in the field of education, this percentage at least should have been 30%, and that too FOR SCHOOLS ALL OVER PAKISTAN AND NOT ONLY IN ISLAMABAD. IS THIS THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF ISLAMABAD OR OF PAKISTAN?

May be, our NA members are afraid of the private schools owners? So much for the love of the poor, by our parliamentarians.

May be, such performances of our Parliamentarians has created hatred for politicians and democracy in the minds of the general public, which always, repeat always welcomes military takeovers in Pakistan.

The degree of the sovereignty of a country, is directly proportional to the state of economy of that nation. Actually, in constant growth & development lies our salvation. Secondly, we Pakistanis must know, that without any doubt, the easiest and surest way of moving ahead, is to stand on our own feet.

Foreign aid, can keep us afloat, but won’t allow us to swim.

Now the time has come to separate the growth, development, education, eradication of poverty & security of Pakistan, from the politics, forever.

In this regard, it is suggested that, we should aim to bring Pakistan, to the level of Singapore of 2010, by the year 2030. All politics & other considerations should be made subservient to this target for 2030, even if we have to abolish weekly holidays for the next 20 years & reduce our daily sleeping time to 6 hours.

All stake holders in Pakistan must immediately come forward for deciding about the direction of the future of the nation.

Biggest factor in any victory is self-confidence. Anti-thesis of terrorism is education, coupled with economic emancipation.

As such, the nation must embark upon the following agenda, to resurrect our economy without any further loss of time.
 
1. Request to all foreign donors for a 5 years moratorium, on all debt repayments by Pakistan, which is a frontline state of the world’s war on terror.  
 
2. 20% per annum reduction in all non-developmental government expenditures, plus total freeze in all perks paid from the national exchequer, involving foreign currency.
 
3.Maximum tax rate on each and every type of income in Pakistan should be fixed at 10%. This will not only bring huge revenues to the government but will also discourage the tax evasion tendencies.
 
4. Increase in productivity & exports with liberal tax relief  to industry, commerce & trade.
 
5. Set a target for 20% per annum increase in foreign remittances, by offering innovative incentives to expatriate Pakistanis.
 
6. Abolish FBR (which will alone increase income by Rs.500 billion) & impose flat 10% tax on all & every type of income (as already mentioned at 3. above), without any exemption (except for the security forces personnel, whose salaries may be doubled with expected receipt of un-precedented  increase in revenue, due to this formula). This will not only reduce income tax burden on salaried class (with max. tax rate of 10%) but will also result in so much increase in revenues, to the extent that government will not require any tax imposition  in the budget. Plus, the government will be able to give tax free salaries to all armed forces, rangers, police and other security agencies personnel, who are shedding their blood, in fighting the menace of terrorism, for our safe tomorrow.
 
7. Initiate steps (by imposing economic emergency) to bring each and every economic activity under document.  

I am more than confident that by the dint of sheer hard work, sincerity & honesty, which is imbibed in the bones of Pakistani work force, we can surely bring Pakistan, into the comity of 20 developed nations of the world, in the next 15-20 years.