LAHORE: Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday sought replies from the chief secretary, the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) and Schools secretary while hearing a petition against the handing over of 5,000 public sector schools to the PEF under the Public School Support Programme (PSSP).
Advocate Chaudhry Shoaib Saleem had argued in his petition that the functioning of the PSSP under the PEF was in clear violation of the Punjab Education Foundation Act 2004 and Article 25-A of the Constitution which enshrined right to free education.
He alleged a few members of the PEF’s board of directors including Dr Amjad Saqid, who is also the chairman of a non-government organisation (NGO) namely Aukhwat, started taking over public sector schools in order to get financial benefits from the support programme. He further said that Dr Amjad also headed the meeting wherein it was decided to hand over almost 100 public sector schools to his NGO.
Moreover, he stated the PEF, which already “lacked professional educationists”, would be burdened due to the school support programme. The lawyer asked the court to set aside the act of the government handing over public sector schools to private institutions/NGOs and direct it to return them to the education department.
He also asked the court to restrain Primary and Secondary Education Secretary Ali Jan Khan from working as in-charge of the PSSP.
The petition was adjourned for May 2, 2018.
