Daily Times

Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA) has directed the private schools to refrain themselves from misinterpreting the different courts’ rulings regarding private educational institutions, as per sources.

Daily Times was informed that in response, Private Schools Association Islamabad (PSAI), which represents almost all elite schools in the federal capital, had written a letter addressed to the PEIRA chairman by stating that the authority had sealed some private schools in violation of Islamabad High Court (IHC) judgment.

The PSAI claimed in the letter, “Under the IHC ruling, no coercive measure shall be initiated against private schools and the sealing of some schools was sheer contempt of court.”

The association further requested to de-seal the schools.

“Otherwise, contempt of court plea would be filed against PEIRA”, the PSAI warned.

According to the available information, the PEIRA has sealed three unregistered schools in the capital a couple of days earlier. The authority claimed that the operation would continue against schools, which were being operated without registration.

With the help of Islamabad administration and police, the PEIRA sealed Headstart (PWD Branch), Discovery School System (Sohan Garden Branch) and Air Foundation School System, located along the Islamabad Highway.

PEIRA Acting Chairman Imtiaz Qureshi said that before sealing the schools, all legal formalities were followed by the authority.

“The operators of the schools were issued notices but they did not comply and finally we compelled to take action as it was a matter of public interest,” Qureshi added.

He claimed that PEIRA Act had empowered the authority to seal illegal schools while adding that no school violating the set criteria in the act would be spare.

The regulatory body rejected the PSAI claims and clarified that the said courts’ judgments had a different status and said that the schools were sealed on totally different grounds, which, it claimed that it was not a contradiction of any court judgment.

“Since there is no nexus between interim orders passed by IHC in writer petition number 2274 of 2019 and action taken against the said schools under the PEIRA act 2013 by local administration,” the authority clarified and warned, “You are hereby advised not to confuse the two separate issues (mentioned in the courts’ judgments) and avoid any misinterpretation of the court orders.”

The PEIRA also said that any ill-advised action taken shall be rigorously contested by the authority.

According to the details, there are two different issues, which are in the court.

One is PEIRA 2013, which was under challenge in the high court, while in another case, the Supreme Court related to the fee issue. In a judgment last month, the SC had directed all private schools not to annually increase in the tuition, more than five per cent. The top court also withdrew an order from last year, passed by the former chief justice, Mian Saqib Nisar, for private schools to reduce their tuition fee by 20 per cent. At the same time, the court has barred administrations of schools to retrieve the money as outstanding charges.

As per a working paper submitted by PEIRA to Senate functional committee on education a few weeks earlier, Islamabad-based schools were supposed to collect a fee on a monthly basis.

The document stated that there was no direction from the Supreme Court, restraining the private schools from charging fees for summer holidays 2019 and onwards.