Private schools threaten contempt proceedings against regulator

Islamabad : Accusing their regulator of violating the Islamabad High Court’s orders on summer break fee, Islamabad’s private schools have warned the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority of contempt proceedings.

For the second time, the PERIA on Tuesday stopped privately-owned private educational institutions from collecting fee from students during the summer vacation insisting there is no end to the high court’s bar on the summer break fee.

Dr Afzal Babur, president of the Private School Network, which represents Islamabad’s low-cost private schools, however, disputed the PEIRA claim, insisting that a divisional IHC bench had issued a stay order against the single-member IHC bench’s decision to ban summer vacation fee.

He asserted that the stay order continued to be effective and therefore, the PEIRA had committed a contempt of court by stopping schools from collecting fee during the summer vacation.

Dr Afzal said the representatives of private schools would meet today (Wednesday) to finalise strategy to begin contempt proceedings against the regulator over the fresh fee restriction.

He said the private schools had to bear the administrative expenses, including rent, utility bills, and teachers’ salary during the summer vacation and therefore, the bar on summer break fee should be withdrawn immediately. He accused the PEIRA of giving the court wrong information on fee and insisted that the Lahore, Peshawar and Sindh high courts didn’t order private schools in their respective regions not to collect fee in summer break from students at all.