PESHAWAR: Accusing the previous government of using the education sector for job creation for own party workers, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said that provision of uniform education opportunities was the primary factor of development.

Speaking at the launching of the Rs1.5 billion BS extension and best teachers’ award ceremony here on Thursday, he said that nowhere in the world poor had been wronged the way they faced hardships in Pakistan. “Nobody cared about the future of the children of poor. PTI took the initiative to provide opportunities to all segments of society,” he claimed.

The chief minister said his government felt the need of rewarding the teachers for improving their efficiency. He said that the awards were being distributed on merit to introduce a culture of competition at the public sector colleges.

Pervez Khattak said that his government had introduced a numbers of reforms, claiming that no previous government had initiated such a large scale reforms.

He said his government had faced hurdles for introducing these reforms. However, he added that he was determined for bringing about a positive change and his determination helped him handled the situation.

The chief minister said that politicians had developed a culture of making promises but doing nothing on the ground, adding that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) changed that culture.

He claimed that every sector was lacking facilities and added that the objectives could not be achieved till provision of facilities in all sectors, including education.

The chief minister feared that the downward spiral would continue unless we prioritise education. “Education plays a major role in the reducing wealth gap and expansion of the middle class of a country which is the main indicator of development,” he remarked.

However, he lamented that previous government had destroyed institution as they had used education sector as a tool for achieving political goals.

They had distributed jobs among their political workers, he claimed.

He believed that violation of merit was responsible for the brain drain. “Our best minds have either moved to other parts of the country or left the country in search of opportunities as they could not get jobs here,” he maintained.

The chief minister said that Pakistan would have been in far better position had merit been followed in the past. “I have seen real development in Ayub Khan’s era,” he recalled while praising the military dictator.

He criticized provision of elementary education in Urdu, saying that elementary education must be provided in English when the medium of higher education was English.

Pervez Khattak said that the class-based education system was implemented to pave the way for the growth of the children of elites.

Earlier, Pervez Khattak distributed awards among best teachers, students and principals. Assistant Professor Government City Girls College Peshawar Atia Rehman was the stage secretary.

Minister for Higher Education Mushtaq Ghani said most of the projects that had been initiated in 2013 had started yielding results. He praised the leadership of Pervez Khattak for implementing the reform agenda of the PTI.

Mushtaq Ghani claimed that the entire Pakistan admitted that the reforms in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were proof of good governance.

He said that previous government had established universities to provide jobs to own blue-eyed.

Mushtaq Ghani announced that the government would establish Pak-Austria Institute of Applied Sciences in Haripur.

Earlier, Secretary Higher Education Syed Zafar Ali Shah enumerated the achievements of his department and highlighted the objectives of the extension of Bachelor of Science programme to colleges.