Rs 138 billion being spent on various educational projects: Senate informed

The Senate was informed on Thursday that Rs 138 billion were being spent on various educational projects to improve education standard and enhance literacy rate in the country.
This was stated by Minister for Education Sardar Asif Ahmad Ali while responding to various questions of the members during question hours, saying that over Rs 1 billion have been provided to the provinces under the President Education Sector Reforms Programme aimed at facilitating the educational institutions to promote science education in particular, while enhancing literacy rate in general.
He said that the government was making efforts to enhance allocations equal to seven percent of the GDP so that to ensure provision of quality education to each citizen. To a question, the Minister said that around 424 educational institutions are working under administrative control of federal government across the country, adding that about 420 institutions are working in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) two each in Sindh and Punjab.
Earlier, the House also witnessed a walk out protest by senators belonging to Balochistan against the cut in development funds by Ministry of Communications of the on-going projects of National Highway Authority (NHA) in the province. Senator Ismail Buledi of the JUI-F and Abdul Raheem Mandokhel of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party left the House as protest against the cut in the funds.
Minister of State for Communications Imtiaz Safdar Warriach, however, told the House that work was underway on Chenab River to connect Shorkot and Garh Maharaja, which would be completed by next year. He said that an amount of Rs 3.569 million out of the total Rs 576.176 million had been released so far for the project.
Replying to a question by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the Minister of State further said that work was underway on Head Muhammadwala Bridge on river Chenab near Multan which will be completed by end of the year. He further said that 43 percent work on Lowari Top Tunnel has been completed, which was expected to complete by December 2013 at a cost of Rs 8 billion.
Meanwhile, Minister for Social Welfare Samina Khalid Ghurki informed the House that there are 44,000 NGOs registered under various laws, adding that the government was taking steps to monitor affairs of the NGOs. However, some senators including Haroon Akhtar and Hafiz Rashid Ahmed expressed concerns over the lack of monitoring of the NGOs.
Ghurki, however, added that the government was pursuing to bring improvement in the legal framework, governing the registration and monitoring of the NGOs and the regulation of flow of foreign funds to the local NGOs. For the purpose, she said that National Assembly Standing Committee on Social Welfare and Special Education has constituted a sub-committee to review laws relating to governance of the NGOs in the country.