Court told bill soon on private schools fee

LAHORE
The Punjab government on Wednesday told the Lahore High Court that a bill will be presented in the next session of the Punjab Assembly to regulate fee structure of private schools.
A provincial law officer gave this undertaking in writing on the behalf of the secretary school education during hearing of a petition questioning heavy fee structure of private schools. Advocate Sheraz Zaka had filed a petition in which he stated that there was no law to govern the private schools. He said that owners of private schools increase fee even twice in a year and no authority take notice against them. He said that education in private schools had become unaffordable for commoners due to the government’s mismanagement. The law officer submitted a written reply of the secretary and stated that legislation in this regard had been finalised.
A bill to this effect would be presented before the assembly in the next session, he added. At this, Justice Shahid Jamil disposed of the petition and directed the Punjab government to ensure presentation of the bill in the assembly for approval.
lynching case: Justice Abdul Sami Khan of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday ordered SHO Nishter Town police station to produce today (Thursday) all suspects allegedly detained for their involvement in lynching of two men outside Yuhannabad in retaliation of suicide attacks on churches.
On March 31, Justice Anwaarul Haq had declined to hear petitions due to reason that he had appeared as counsel of the petitioner Joseph Frances in the past and it would not be appropriate to hear his case as member of bench.
Previously, the petitions came up for hearing before Justice Mahmood Maqbool Bajwa but he was not available on Tuesday, so the case was fixed before Justice Anwaarul Haq. Joseph and others filed the petitions alleging that the police took their family members in custody without any evidence and denied access to them. They said the police did not produce the arrested men before any court of law.
Petitioners claimed that the arrested men had no link with the lynching incident. Counsel sought directions to recover the detainees from police custody and set them at liberty.
custody: Lahore High Court Justice Tariq Abbasi on Wednesday handed over two children to their parents after getting them recovered from the house of Punjab former home secretary Ijaz Shah’s brother.
Hanif of Nankana Sahib had filed the petition and submitted that his daughters Aasia, 12, and Waqas, 10, had been working as domestic workers at house of Nawaz Shah, brother of the former bureaucrat. The petitioner said the employer was not paying the salaries to the siblings for several months and denying access to their parents. He requested the judge to order police for the recovery of his daughters. On previous hearing, the judge had ordered the police to recover the detainees, upon which police produced them in the court. The judge handed them over to the custody of their father.