MANSEHRA: Federal religious affairs minister Sardar Mohammad Yusuf on Saturday claimed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur had refused to accept financial assistance from the federal government for the relief of flood-hit people and the rehabilitation of damaged infrastructure in the province.

“Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was scheduled to visit the flood-hit areas but inclement weather disrupted his plans. Now, he will visit soon and announce a compensation package, after the KP chief minister’s rejection of the federal government’s funds offer for the relief of calamity-affected families and infrastructure rehabilitation,” Mr Yusuf told a meeting at the New Circuit House here about post-flood activities.

The meeting was attended by the deputy commissioner and heads and officials of the relevant departments, Rescue 1122 and tehsil municipal administrations.

The federal minister said that if the provincial government was unwilling to receive federal funds, it should expedite its own process of compensating and rehabilitating people.

“As many as 27 people lost lives to the cloudburst and flash floods, with 20 dying in a single incident in Haleem Dehrai Neelband area. The district administration requires Rs433 million for compensation and rehabilitation, but the KP government has yet to release the money, to the misery of flood victims,” he said.

The minister said houses, schools, roads, bridges and water schemes were destroyed by the calamity in Mansehra district but the provincial government had yet not initiated rehabilitation and reconstruction activities.

“If the KP government leaves people at the mercy of harsh weather and natural calamities, the federal government will step in and extend all possible support to them,” he said.

Meanwhile, Baffa-Pakhal tehsil municipal officer Mazhar Muzaffar Awan, who also attended the meeting, told reporters that the search and rescue operation in Haleem Dehrai Neelband area was completed after the recovery of the bodies of all 20 people swept away by the flash floods.

SCHOOLS’ OUTSOURCING OPPOSED: Tanzeem Asatiza provincial president Dr Mohammad Nasir on Saturday opposed the outsourcing of public schools in the province and said his teacher community would never accept the move and would rather resist it.

“Section 25-A of the 1973 Constitution binds the state to provide free education to every child until the age of 16. If the government plans to privatise 4,140 schools across the province under the cover of outsourcing, we will never accept it,” he told reporters here.

Dr Nasir said that his organisation and other bodies working for teachers’ rights and promotion of education would devise a strategy if the government failed to satisfy them on the issue.

“The government has approached us and other organisations with assurances of a meeting to end this confusion. We are waiting for that summit and its outcome,” he said.

The teacher leader said the chief minister’s special assistant on education would soon schedule a meeting with minister for schools Mian Saeedudden Kakakhel, with the outsourcing of 4,140 schools, as announced by the government, to be the main agenda.

“We cannot allow outsourcing of education to private operators. If the government tries to hand over schools to them, we will evolve a joint strategy for resistance,” he said.

Meanwhile, the All Primary Teachers Association denounced the outsourcing of government schools and announced the launch of street protests against it.

“Teachers are against the privatisation of government primary, high and higher secondary schools, for both boys and girls, anywhere in the province under the garb of outsourcing, and we will never accept it at any cost,” APTA district president Attique Mughal told reporters.

Accompanied by other association leaders, Mr Mughal said Mansehra was also among the districts where the government had announced the outsourcing of schools.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2025