Private school defends fee hike in court

Karachi
In its reply submitted in the Sindh High Court, the management of a private North Nazimabad school facing a case by parents over an unjustified fee hike has claimed that the increase has been implemented after three years and in line with the overall inflation rate.
The counsel for the school sought to justify the increase and prayed the court to vacate the stay order it had issued after the first hearing on September 18. At the time, the bench headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah had restrained the school from enforcing the fee increase and sought comments from the provincial chief and education secretaries and the school management.
Presenting the school’s version, the counsel said that due to the non-payment of tuition fees, as ordered by the court, the management had been unable to pay salaries of the school staff and was lagging behind in other expenses as well.
As the bench adjourned the hearing till October 7, the court did not rescind the stay order but issued notices to the provincial law officer, education secretary and director for schools to file comments on the matter.
The case had been filed last Friday by petitioners Shahrukh Shakeel and others who submitted that their children were studying in the primary section of a private school in North Nazimabad which had recently imposed a 14 percent fee hike in violation of Sindh Private Institution Ordinance 2001.
Their counsel, Mehreen Ibrahim, submitted in the petition that the school administration, in a bid for greater profits, was using amendments made in the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 - which requires educational institutions to collect advance tax from students that was adjustable against tax liability on parents - to justify the raise.
She contended that the amendment which the school management was relying upon states that advance tax could not be collected if the fee structure does not exceed Rs200,000.