KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday extended till April 24 its earlier order that restrained private schools from charging an enhanced fee and taking any adverse action against students in this regard.

Headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, a two-judge bench was hearing a set of petitions of parents of students against managements of four private schools for charging enhanced fees.

During Thursday’s proceedings, Justice Abbasi remarked that everyone knew the poor situation at the government schools and asked how court could allow private schools to increase fee in such circumstances.

The court also directed the parents to continue paying tuition fee with a five per cent increase, with other dues, till the disposal of the matter.

Certain school administrations have increased tuition fee by 12pc to 60pc in violation of the ordinance

According to the petitioners’ lawyer, another bench in its judgement had recently quashed Rule 7(C) of the Rules of 2001 and the provincial government was told to formulate rules, if it wished so, within 90 days.

He contended that till such rules were formulated, the tuition fee could not be increased.

The counsel informed the judges that the management of private schools had been issuing vouchers to demand a fee with an increase of more than 5pc in alleged violation of the previous stay order granted by the court.

The counsel appearing for parents and school managements requested the court to form a larger bench to hear the matter.

The bench put off the hearing to April 24 and extended its earlier interim order that restrained the private schools’ managements from charging enhanced fee and taking any adverse action against the students.

Petitioners Bushra Jabeen, Arshad Fawad, Mohammad Shariq Feroz and 600 other parents had challenged the increase in tuition fees at four private schools in alleged violation of the Sindh Private Educational Institutions (Regulation and Control) Ordinance, 2001.

They said their children were studying at private schools situated in KDA, Gulistan-i-Jauhar and Qasimabad, and the schools’ administrations had increased the tuition fee by 12pc to 60pc in violation of the ordinance.

Missing persons’ cases

Another bench, headed by Justice Aftab Ahmed Gorar, expressed extreme annoyance over the police for their lethargic attitude in missing persons’ cases and remarked that police officials concerned were making fun of the courts. The bench was hearing scores of petitions filed for the recovery of “missing” people.

Taking exception to the official replies in the cases, Justice Gorar remarked that similar comments were submitted before the court with slight changes.

During the proceedings, a lawyer informed the judges that his son Noor Mohammad had been missing for the past five years. He alleged that his son was whisked away by a team led by former SSP of Malir Rao Anwar.

The investigating officer submitted that letters had been written to all institutions concerned to trace the lawyer’s missing son.

However, when asked by the court to submit copies of the same letters, he replied: “I forgot to bring these letters today.”

The bench put off the hearing of the cases to April 26, directing the respondents to file their progressive reports in the cases.

The same bench also heard a petition filed by Usman seeking recovery of his son Saad, who has been missing for nearly three years.

According to the petitioner, his son went missing on June 21 when he left his residence in Federal B Area to attend a religious gathering near Madni Masjid. His whereabouts were unknown and the departments concerned had no clue to it since then.

He informed the judges that another son of his, Siddique, had seen Saad in the Rangers’ Mitharam hostel during their detention. The lawyer said that Saad was in an injured condition in the Rangers detention.

The bench adjourned the matter to May 3, directing the interior secretary to inquire into the issue and furnish a report by next hearing.

Judicial commission

The apex court-mandated judicial commission on water quality in the province was on Thursday informed that the construction work on nine of the 17 district headquarters (DHQ) hospitals in various parts of Sindh was not satisfactory.

A report submitted by the chairman of planning and development (P&D) to the commission said that there were seven ADP schemes under a project comprising health units.

It said that out of these 63 units, there were 17 DHQ hospitals, five THQ hospitals and 41 trauma centres in different districts across the province.

According to the report, the construction of six DHQ hospitals was satisfactory, while the construction of nine DHQ hospitals was unsatisfactory.

Besides, the report said the construction of all 41 trauma centres was unsatisfactory.

The commission ordered that in these circumstances the project be decentralised and be taken up at district level by the works and services department.

While taking up the issue of industrial effluent, commission head retired Justice Amir Hani Muslim said the combined effluent plant was proposed for ensuring that the industrial waste be treated before it was drained to the sea. “The industrial waste has caused damage to the sea, the marine life, besides the fact that Pakistan has business of shipping industry.”

The commission observed that the plan was still on paper though there was an arrangement that the federal and provincial governments would fund the project equally.

The project director of the combined effluent plan appeared before the commission with his report.

The commission would examine his working report on Friday when the chief secretary would be attending a meeting with the commission.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2018