School association files contempt petition against PEIRA

Claims govt regulator sent notice to a private school in violation of IHC stay order

ISLAMABAD: The apex regulator of private schools in the federal capital has been taken to court by the private school association for allegedly committing contempt of court by asking a private school to provide details of grade-wise fee structure even when a stay had been granted.

The Supreme Court had on June 12, 2019, directed all private schools, who charge more than Rs5,000 as fees, to furnish grade-wise base fee structure. Subsequently, the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA) — which regulates private schools in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) — had issued to all private schools to furnish the requisite details.

However, the private school association went to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and on June 19, just seven days later, had sought a stay on furnishing the information by contending that the apex court’s orders extended to the Punjab and Sindh and that it did not include ICT.

The association had further contended that “intra-court appeals have been filed against the judgment in writ petition of 2016, which has not yet been decided, hence impugned order is without lawful authority.”

Subsequently, the IHC had granted the stay while it had also barred PEIRA from adopting ‘coercive measures’ against members of the Islamabad Private Schools Association (IPSA).

PIERA fails to regulate private instituitions due to lack of clear policy

However, in its petition filed before the IHC on Wednesday, IPSA Secretary Abdul Waheed contended that PEIRA Academics Member Imtiaz Ali Qureshi and the Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqat had allegedly committed contempt of that stay order by issuing a notice to a member of the association “just to pressurize and harass the members of the association”.

“The respondent has expressly disobeyed and direction issued by this court, to which they were legally bound to obey strictly and its compliance matter of strict liability, as such they have committed irregularity of serious character and are liable to be imposed drastic procedure and penalty of contempt proceeding,” contend Shireen Imran, the counsel for IPSA.

She further contended that Qureshi and Shafqat had been issued notices by the court in the stay application but they had allegedly ignored those orders.

The petitioner pleaded that the court must take action against the authority as it may deem necessary.

Supplying drugs to students

A man, who used to supply drugs to students of the Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) has been sentenced by a district and sessions court after he was found guilty of the charges.

Judge Sohail Nasir sentenced Muhammad Tayyab to serve four years and six months in jail. He was slapped with a fine of Rs20,000. In the event Tayyab fails to pay the fine, his sentence will be extended for another six months.

Tayyab, the convict, had been arrested from outside Islamabad’s largest university in November 2018. The Secretariat Police had recovered 1.24 kilogrammes of heroin from him. 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11^th, 2019.