ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan said on Tuesday it wanted to expeditiously conclude its proceedings in a case related to the electoral disqualifications of lawmakers for life under Article 62(1)(f) of the constitution as previously directed by it or uphold a recent amendment to reduce the ineligibility to five years.
The country’s top court ruled in April 2018 that lawmakers disqualified under the said constitutional provision would be unable to contest elections for the rest of their lives. However, the government passed the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2023, last year in June, limiting the disqualification period for five years.
A seven-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, was quoted as saying by Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper he wanted to settle the issue quickly to prevent any “confusion” faced by returning officers currently scrutinizing the nomination papers of candidates for the upcoming national polls.
The chief justice also questioned the idea of disqualifying aspiring election candidates on the basis of their character since the constitutional provision requires a candidate to be “honest and righteous.”
“According to Islamic teachings, no one can be said to have an exemplary character,” he said.
“We all sin and therefore pray for forgiveness when someone dies,” he continued. “If all these conditions [specified in the constitutional provision] were present earlier, even [the founder of Pakistan] Quaid-i-Azam [Mohammad Ali Jinnah] would have been disqualified.”
Chief Justice Isa noted the said constitutional provision was introduced by former military ruler, General Ziaul Haq, adding he had undermined the supreme document of the country by ousting a democratic government and taking over the political power of the country.
He said that he wanted to conclude the case on Jan. 11 before adjourning the hearing until Jan. 4.
If the court decides that the disqualification should be for a period of five years, it would pave the way for the electoral return of former three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Sharif was convicted in 2018 on corruption charges and sentenced to seven years in jail. In 2019, however, a Pakistani court granted medical bail to him for treatment in London after his health was said to have deteriorated in prison.
The former prime minister, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), returned in October 2023 to lead his party in the upcoming general elections, scheduled to be held on February 8. Last week, Pakistan’s election regulator accepted Sharif’s nomination papers for the upcoming polls.
Pakistan’s top court to expedite case on lawmakers’ lifetime disqualification ahead of national polls
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Pakistan’s top court to expedite case on lawmakers’ lifetime disqualification ahead of national polls
- Supreme Court ruled in 2018 lawmakers disqualified under Article 62(1)(f) would not be able to contest polls for life
- A verdict limiting the disqualification period to five years will pave the way for ex-PM Nawaz Sharif’s electoral return
Nearly 25% of Pakistan’s primary schools enrolling girls operate as single-teacher ones— report
- Pakistan needs over 115,000 more teachers in primary schools enrolling girls to meet global benchmark of one teacher per 30 students, says report
- Sixty percent of Pakistani primary schools enrolling girls are overcrowded, while 32% lack clean drinking water or toilets, says Tabadlab report
ISLAMABAD: Nearly 25% of Pakistan’s primary schools that enrolls girls operate as single-teacher ones, a report by a leading think tank said this week, calling on the government to devolve teacher recruitment powers, upskill underutilized teachers and introduce reforms to hire and promote faculty members.
Pakistan faces an acute education crisis which is reflected in the fact that it has the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children, an estimated 22.8 million aged 5-16 who are not in educational institutions, according to UNICEF.
While poverty remains the biggest factor keeping children out of classrooms, Pakistan’s education crisis is exacerbated by inadequate infrastructure and underqualified teachers, cultural barriers and the impacts of frequently occurring natural disasters.
According to “The Missing Ustaani,” a report published by Islamabad-based think tank Tabadlab and supported by Malala Fund and the Pakistan Institute of Education (PIE), Pakistan needs over 115,000 more teachers in primary schools with girls’ enrolment to meet the basic international benchmark of ensuring one teacher per 30 children. Currently, the average Student-to-Teacher Ratio (STR) across Pakistan’s primary schools with girls’ enrolment is 39:1, it said.
“Approximately 60% of these schools are overcrowded, necessitating the recruitment of over 115,000 additional teachers nationwide,” the report said on Monday. “Compounding this, nearly 25% of primary schools with girls’ enrolment operate as single-teacher schools, placing immense pressure on the quality of education.”
It said the situation is more dire in Pakistan’s poverty-stricken southwestern Balochistan province, where nearly 52% of the schools are single-teacher only ones while the percentage decreases slightly in the southern Sindh province to 51 percent.
The report said while the STR improves to 25:1 at the middle school level, acute shortages of subject specialists emerge as the top-priority concern for quality education in these schools.
“Furthermore, around 32% of primary schools with girls’ enrolment and 18% of middle schools face ‘critical infrastructural shortages’— lacking clean drinking water or toilets in addition to high STRs— which significantly affects girls’ attendance and learning, particularly during adolescence,” the report said.
The report cited a set of priority recommendations to address Pakistan’s systemic teacher deployment challenges and improve educational equity for girls.
It urged the government to devolve recruitment authority to school or cluster levels to enable timely, context-specific hiring. It also called upon authorities to reform teacher transfer and promotion policies to introduce school-specific postings with minimum service terms.
This, it said, would reduce arbitrary transfers and improving continuity in classrooms. The report advised authorities to upskill surplus or underutilized primary teachers to support instruction at the middle school level, helping address subject-specialist shortages.
“Together, these reforms offer a pathway toward a more equitable, efficient, and responsive teaching workforce— one capable of improving learning outcomes and ensuring that every girl in Pakistan has access to a qualified teacher,” the report said.
To tackle Pakistan’s education crisis, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared an ‘education emeregency’ in September 2024, stressing the importance of education for all.
