Pakistani ambassador to syria, Aminullah Raisani "invades" school with family!

ISLAMABAD: The ambassador to Syria, after appointing his kith and kin at the Pakistan International School in Damascus (PISD), has turned rough on the teacher who went vocal against him in the media and has issued a show-cause notice to her.

But Ms Manal Suleman, the only teacher in Syria who conducts biology practical for senior Cambridge examination, is brave enough to face the rampage of the ambassador, saying the truth can never be suppressed.

Aminullah Raisani, the Ambassador, said he wanted the school to function properly and clarified that the principal of the school was not his sister, but from his tribe in Balochistan. He said instead of two, as mentioned in The Statesmen report, his three daughters were teaching at the school at more than double pay than their predecessors.

Manal said four daughters of the ambassador had been hired by the school, but the ambassador confirmed only three. The ambassador admitted that he had sold shoes at the school and made it mandatory for every student to buy and wear those shoes, saying he wanted a uniform in the school.

“Students use to wear joggers, which was not appropriate,” said the ambassador. “I studied in the Aitchison College, Lahore, and if there was a uniform there, why not in the PISD? That’s why I sold shoes in the school.”

He said the previous ambassador had appointed an incompetent and non-professional principal and women from massage centres at the school, while he had appointed competent teachers. “My three daughters are well qualified and can better serve the school,” he claimed.

He said if the principal was from his tribe and another teacher was a Baloch of the Sindh province, who moved to Syria during the era of late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, what was wrong with it? “Do the Sindhis and the Baloch have no right of getting appointed at a Pakistani school abroad?” he asked.

When told that no one had questioned the provincial divide in appointments at the PISD but nepotism had been proved, Raisani said the previous administration was incompetent and he had hired competent people.

Regarding the high salaries, the ambassador said the Board of Governors had approved the salaries, because the PISD was already paying less to the teachers. He said he headed the Board of Governors,.

The teachers of the PISD said the ambassador came to the school daily at 8:00 am in the morning to monitor the matters of the school and he even inspected the shoes of the students, which he had forcefully sold to them.

Raisani said he once visited the school and saw that the gatekeepers were sleeping. He said he wanted to make the school better. That was why he took interest in the school, he added. It is worth mentioning here that Raisani sacked the entire staff and faculty of the Pakistan International School in Damascus and appointed almost all his immediate family members.

Though he denied that the principal was his sister, but the faculty members of the school said he always portrayed her as his sister and the principal had been appointed on $6,500 per month, while her predecessor was getting only $2,500.

Ms Manal Suleman has been issued a show-cause notice after The Statesmen story. In her reply, Manal stated: “The information that was given to The Statesmen reflected what was happening over the past months at the school, and were clear enough to be figured out without any effort. Your administration, with respect (as well as with evidence and proof), have done the school everything, except the basic task of any other school, which is education.”

She said the PISD was taking the so-called early exams from the grade 11 students to send them on vacations to avoid criticism by parents of senior students. She said one teacher, Muder-ul-Hassan, was sacked on the basis of fake degree, while he had proved in a court of law that his degree was original and now, the ambassador and the school might be sued for their act.

She also mentioned that the son of an employee of the embassy had been hired as librarian on a great package, while he was said to be just a matriculate, as he had appeared in the grade 11 examination last year.