Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday stressed the need to enforce uniformed education setup all over the country to end disparity.

A three-member Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah was hearing a suo motu case along with a petition filed by Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) against private medical colleges charging exorbitant fees from the students.

The chief justice observed that efforts should be made to enforce a uniform education setup across the country, where there should be ‘one book (curriculum), one bag and one uniform’. “We all are responsible for the prevailing disparity and discrimination between children of the poor and the rich,” he said, adding, “We have to see whether the state was fulfilling its responsibilities in accordance with the constitution. Nothing could be changed in a day … hence we will try to bring improvement in the system steadily.”

The chief justice said it was the responsibility of the state to bridge this educational gap. He said under Article 25 of the constitution, the state was bound to provide education to the children between the ages of five and 16.

He questioned whether the state was doing its job, adding that whether Article 25 was being implemented or was it just for show. He said innocent children should not be discriminated at any cost and there should be a level-playing field in the education setup without any discrimination.

He said if any medical college was fulfilling the prescribed criteria, the court had no objection to it. “We do not want to destroy the medical colleges … we want to streamline the system,” the chief justice noted.

Akram Sheikh, senior counsel for PMDC, stated that the literacy rate in Sri Lanka was 99 percent. He said students from Cambridge-regulated schools get preferential treatment, adding that if ordinary level students will get preferential treatment then what would happen with others.

He said in most rural areas of the country, feudal landlords do not allow opening of schools in their areas. The chief justice recalled that the court has taken notice over a school which had turned into a buffalo farm. He, however, said that the legislators will have to do something about this. Sardar Latif Khosa, senior counsel for Dr Asim Hussain, who has been summoned to appear today (Wednesday) being former head of the PMDC in a separate suo motu case to explain why he devised policies which benefited private medical colleges, told the court that according to independent and credible reports 30-million children do not go to school in the country.

The chief justice then noted that the parliament, being a supreme body, should rectify this issue. “We all are responsible for this loss of the children’s education,” he said. The chief justice recalled that the Supreme Court’s 2018 agenda was to focus on human rights issues, particularly the issues involving rights of people to the quality education and healthcare. The chief justice, however, clarified that the recent hearings being conducted on the cases involving human rights were being conducted after the regular timings of the court so that the ordinary cases and routine activities are not affected. He said the court was trying to overcome the delay in disposing of the cases and end the burgeoning backlog. He said a case filed in 1962 would be heard on January 30 in the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the court adjourned the hearing in the case for today (Wednesday). The PMDC had filed the petition against December 2017 decision of the Lahore High Court, declaring the PMDC illegal and nullifying its 2016 regulations for admissions to MBBS and BDS in medical colleges across the country.

Published in Daily Times, January 10^th 2018.