PESHAWAR, Oct 1: The provincial cabinet here on Monday approved the much awaited proposed bill for establishing a regulatory authority to register, regulate and look after private schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Briefing journalists regarding the decisions taken in the cabinet meeting, Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain said that the bill titled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Private Schools Regulatory Authority Bill 2012 was approved by the cabinet. “It would be tabled in the assembly soon,” he said.

The 52nd meeting of the provincial cabinet was chaired by Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti.

Mr Hussain said that the regulatory authority would be responsible for registration, regulations and looking after of private schools in the province. The selection of the curricula and fixation of fees for private schools would be decided by the regulatory authority, he added.

The minister said that the regulatory authority would decide minimum qualifications for teachers of private educational institutions, their trainings, salaries and service matters.

It would be compulsory for all private schools to be registered with the regulatory authority, he said. The administrators of unregistered high and higher secondary schools and intermediate colleges would be fined Rs200,000 or sentenced to one year imprisonment or both, he added.

The administrators of kindergarten, primary and middle schools or other educational institutions of the same category would be fined Rs50,000 or sentenced to six months imprisonment or both.

There would be 13 members of the regulatory authority with minister for elementary and secondary education as its chairman.

The elementary and secondary education secretary, higher education secretary, finance secretary, establishment secretary, elementary and secondary education director, chairman of Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Peshawar, managing director of the regulatory authority and four representatives of private schools will be members of the authority.

The membership tenure of the representatives of the private schools would be two years, the minister said.

The cabinet also approved amendments to the guidelines for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa development programme, he said, adding it was launched in 2002-03 under which small development schemes were being executed through project committees on the recommendations of the respective MPAs.

Mr Hussain said that after the amendments, the project committees would have power to execute a development project costing up to Rs20 million. In the past it executed projects costing Rs10 million.

The cabinet directed local government and rural development department and planning and development department to sit together and frame modalities for utilisation of funds by the project committees, the minister said.

He said that the cabinet was informed by the officials concerned that assets of Pakistan Tourism were not handed over to the provincial government that should be transferred to the provinces after 18th Amendment. The cabinet decided to take up the issue in the meeting of the Council for Common Interest (CCI), he added.

The cabinet constituted a committee under the chairmanship of provincial law minister for examining certain amendments proposed by Peshawar High Court to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Judicial Services Rules 2001.

The PHC had proposed that the powers of appointment of judicial officers should be taken away from the provincial public service commission and handed over to provincial judicial selection board, which the high court would be empowered to establish.