LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has restrained the Punjab government from taking coercive action against private schools over charging increased fee.
Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza, while hearing more than 15 petitions moved on behalf of the management of the private schools, sought reply from the Punjab education authorities until November 5.
The petitioner counsel said that the government was taking action against private schools for the fee they were charging. He said that the schools did not force parents to pay heavy fee and it was done with the parents’ consent keeping in view the price.
He said that the government intended to take action under the Punjab Private Educational Institutions and Regulations (Amendment) Ordinance 2015, which was unjust. He said that the provincial government through this ordinance had prohibiting private schools from increasing the fee this year.
He said that the ‘impugned ordinance’ had restricted the private schools in Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Rawalpindi from raising students’ fee this year and it also commanded that schools intending to raise fee in the next year would have to take prior permission from the concerned authority. He pleaded that many sections of this ordinance were also against the Constitution.
