Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Sindh President Haleem Adil Sheikh asserted on Sunday that over 7.8 million children in the Sindh province are deprived of education due to the alleged incompetence of the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) 17-year rule.
In a statement marking the International Day of Education, Mr Sheikh condemned the situation as a clear failure of the provincial government, accusing it of neglecting its constitutional duty to provide education despite an uninterrupted period in power.
The PTI leader claimed that while other provinces, particularly Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, had demonstrated educational improvements and rising literacy rates since 2008, Sindh was the sole province where literacy levels had reportedly continued to fall below the national average.
Highlighting severe infrastructural deficiencies, the PTI Sindh chief detailed that thousands of government schools lacked fundamental amenities. He alleged that 46 per cent of schools were without washrooms, while more than 70 per cent lacked access to clean drinking water, electricity, and boundary walls.
He further says over 85 per cent of schools do not have playgrounds, which he said deprives children of opportunities for healthy physical and mental development. The prevalence of one-room, one-teacher schools, he added, has become a “tragic hallmark” of the province’s education system.
Questioning the government’s financial management, Sheikh asked why billions of rupees allocated to the education budget had produced negligible results. He made the serious allegation that over 12,000 ghost schools exist across Sindh, with many purportedly converted into private guesthouses for influential landlords.
Sheikh accused the provincial government of being a silent spectator while educational quality deteriorates, thereby deliberately pushing Sindh’s future into darkness. He asserted that the PPP”s commitment to education was limited to “mere slogans” without practical implementation.
Reaffirming his party’s position, Sheikh said the PTI would make education its foremost priority and work to ensure every child is enrolled in school. “Education is the right of Sindh’s children, not charity,’ he remarked, questioning what crime the children were being punished for.