ISLAMABAD, The Senate Standing Committee on Education, on Thursday, expressed its concern over the increase in fees by educational institutes for the sake of increased security.

The committee has directed the government to sell security related equipment to these institutes at subsidised rates. The meeting, which was chaired by SM Zafar, was attended by Education Minister Mir Hazar Khan Bajarni and other senior officials from the education department and the Interior Ministry. The minister said that the government did not have adequate resources to provide security to the educational institutes but it has set up committees to monitor security arrangements in private and state-run educational institutes which would continue to work on a permanent basis. Briefing the committee, Education Secretary Abdul Rauf said that it had directed all the institutes to discontinue their bus services for the sake of the security of the children. Interior Joint Secretary Tahir Sarfraz said the Interior Ministry had issued special directives to the government offices and educational institutes whereby eight signs of the suicide bombers had been communicated.

Pakistan Educational Institute Regulatory Authority representative Atif Kiani informed the committee that private educational institutes had increased the fees from Rs 100 to Rs 500 in the name of security.