LHC strikes down 8pc increase in school fee

LAHORE:The Lahore High Court on Tuesday struck down eight per cent increase in fee made by private schools from January 2019 being in violation of Supreme Court’s June 12, 2019 judgment, however, they are allowed five per cent annual increase in July 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Justice Sethi partly declared District Regulator Authority (DRA) order illegal being not in conformity with judgment of the apex court and modified in term of said clarification.The private schools as well as parents/students are obliged to abide by the direction of the apex court and shall facilitate the process of implementation of the decision in letter and spirit.

The DRA would also set up complaint cells to deal with future grievances of the parties, the court ruled while disposing of several petition of students, parents and private schools administration.

The parents had challenged the decision of private schools receiving excessive fees, pleading that private educational institutions are violating the Supreme Court (SC) orders by taking excessive fees.The petitioners ‘counsel Azhar Siddique argued that the parents and students were facing difficulties due to the exorbitant fees being taken by private schools. He prayed to the court to restrain private educational institutions from collecting exorbitant fees and immediately declare the decision as illegal.Private schools administration had also approached LHC, complaining that DRA was wrongly interpreting SC’s order and they were entitled to 8 per cent increases three times from July 2017 to 2019.

Pakistanis stranded in China: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday sought a reply from the federal government on a petition seeking directions to bring all Pakistanis stranded in China due to coronavirus outbreak back to the county.

Akhtar Ali Chattha, father of a student in China, approached the LHC, saying not only his son, Sohaib Chattha, but over 1,000 other Pakistani citizens had been stuck in China’s city of Wuhan where they had been confined to their living spaces due to the outbreak of coronavirus for the last one month.

He stated that his son had strict instructions from his university and local administration to not leave his room but in very urgent situations, a preventive strategy called “quarantine” where movement is restricted in order to prevent spread of the disease.

The petitioner argued that Pakistani students had not been provided with adequate medical facility and food. He said few students and professors of Agriculture University of China had been infected with the disease which increased the probability of the disease infecting Pakistani citizens.

He pleaded that almost all countries had evacuated their citizens from China.

The petitioner requested the court to order the ministry of foreign affairs to evacuate all Pakistani citizens from China without further delay.