KARACHI: Sindh Local Government minister, Saeed Ghani, has said the government and affluent people are under a solemn obligation to fully back the sincere charities striving hard to spread education in Pakistan.

He stated this while speaking as the chief guest at the OSP 2024 Fun Gala event the non-profit Green Crescent Trust (GCT) organised at an elite holiday resort to entertain its over 1200 orphaned children enrolled in its charitable schools in Karachi and suburbs. The GCT’s donors and concerned philanthropists, eminent businessmen, and industrialists attended the ceremony, who generously donate to the drive to educate children from deprived communities.

Ghani told the audience at the event that Pakistan could progress at an accelerated pace only after eradicating the issue of illiteracy in the country in the shortest possible time. He said that Pakistan’s development and advancement would remain an unfulfilled dream without enrolling out-of-school children in the country. He said that imparting quality education to all the children in the country was the solemn duty of the government, but the latter failed to fulfil this constitutional obligation.  The Local Government Minister opined that bona fide charities like the Green Crescent Trust, which embarked upon the mission of providing quality schooling to children from underprivileged communities, had been shouldering an important responsibility of the government. The government and concerned philanthropists should extend the fullest support to such non-profits in the education sector to jointly wage the struggle against illiteracy in the country, he added. 

He appreciated that the GCT had so far established 170 schools in remote and less-privileged areas of Sindh, with an enrolment of over 32,800 students from deprived families.  Ghani urged the concerned donors to keep supporting the GCT’s drive to enrol out-of-school children in Sindh. The number of schools the GCT operates and the children it enrols should keep on increasing to tackle the issue of illiteracy in the shortest possible time, he said. He told the audience that his grandparents had very limited economic resources at their disposal, but even then, they ensured that his father received a proper education, who in turn also didn’t make any compromises in educating his children.  He stated that his ancestors' financial hardships were overcome solely due to a generational shift, as his elders prioritised education.  The Local Government Minister encouraged the orphaned students present at the event to pursue their education wholeheartedly to secure their families' economic prosperity, as he did.  After witnessing impressive speeches and other presentations by the students at the event, he said the children passing out from the GCT schools could become future leaders of Pakistan as qualified scientists, economists, technologists, educationists, and civil servants.

  In his welcome speech, GCT CEO Zahid Saeed,TI., said the authentic UNO figures showed that over 26.2 million children aged between four and 16 were out of school in Pakistan. He said enrolling these out-of-school children was a massive challenge that required constant support from concerned philanthropists and donors. He said that China had overcome its backwardness and poverty in just 20 years by fully focusing on its people's education. He said that ensuring quality schooling for every child in the country without any discrimination could ensure that Pakistan was counted among the most advanced nations in the shortest possible time. Zahid Saeed expressed firm belief that the GCT would continue to get philanthropic support from concerned donors to expand its educational network in Sindh for children from deprived families.  GCT school network Orphaned alumnus Nazish Jameel, now serving as a town officer in the Local Government Department, told the audience how GCT transformed her life from an orphaned student from an underprivileged family to a government officer who passed the provincial civil service examination. Abdul Jabbar Rathod, former president of Memon Professional Forum, and Abdul Ghaffar Umar, GCT founding secretary-general, also spoke and highlighted the cause of spreading education to overcome poverty and backwardness in Pakistan.