Private schools move LHC against exam fee hike

RAWALPINDI, Private schools have moved Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench against Punjab Boards Chairmen Committee (PBCC)’s decision to increase registration fee for their students appearing in the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination.

However, Justice Khwaja Imtiaz Ahmed directed the petitioner, Abrar Ahmed Khan of All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association to attach relevant documents with the petition to show they had already deposited the new fee. The court will again take up the petition on Friday.

Making secretary higher education commission, chairmen PBCC and the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Rawalpindi as respondents, the petitioner through his counsel Mohammad Ilyas Mian said the PBCC had increased the registration fee from Rs400 to Rs700 after the provincial government directed it to abolish the registration fee for regular candidates.

The counsel said the hike was discriminatory under article 25 and the amended article 25-A of the constitution that called for equal treatment of all citizens and equal education for all children. He said after the provincial government waived the registration fee for regular students, the boards had increased the fee for private students to make up for the financial loss.

He said the boards had also directed private schools to deposit Rs5,000 every year as inspection fee against Rs3,000 that was taken once at the time of granting affiliation to private schools.

The boards have directed the private schools to deposit the inspection fee every June and in case of delay Rs1,000 would be collected every month from them and their students would not be allowed to sit the exam.

Separately, Justice Khwaja issued notices to BISE chairman in a pending petition on the identical issue after the petitioner wanted to include PBCC as a respondent.