How school buses will run if drivers are not paid, IHC asks government

FDE did not provide any budget to pay for the fuel of these vehicles, nor money to hire drivers and conductors

ISLAMABAD:  

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday heard a case pertaining to the regularisation of the school bus drivers in the federal capital.

Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani remarked that it was a dangerous norm to let people drive buses without paying them. He added “Schools have 200 buses. How will they run without money?”

The administration director of the education department said that the posts of 34 drivers and 38 conductors were not approved.

The judge said that the government was responsible for solving the problems related to the governance, and not the court.

He remarked that less than 1% of Pakistan’s population pay taxes and added that the people were not paying taxes because they mistrust the system.

The court ordered the petitioner to make the finance division a respondent in the case too and adjourned the case till end of schools’ summer vacations.

Around 200 buses had been procured under the Prime Minister Education Reforms Programme (PMERP) for the 423 government-run schools in Islamabad. Previously, the government distributed 130 buses amongst the schools in two tranches. This is the last tranche of buses to be distributed.

The Federal Directorate of Education did not provide any budget to pay for the fuel of these vehicles, nor money to hire drivers and conductors. As a result, the cash-strapped FG schools in the city will have few options — especially in the absence of a supplementary grant from the government – other than to pass on the financial burden to run these buses onto the students.

Drivers and conductors of buses working at educational institutions in the federal capital have stopped working in April over non-payment of salaries for nearly a year. The wheel-jam strike had created difficulties for students, many of whom who rely on the buses to travel to and from schools and colleges in the city.

Instead of addressing their issues, the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) had decided to terminate services of all drivers and conductors participating in the strike. Finally the case landed in IHC.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2019.