Pakistan

Community schools’ closure: SC reserves verdict, asks govt to pay salaries

AG says existence of ghost schools one of the project’s drawbacks.

Qaiser Zulfiqar October 22, 2011

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its verdict on petitions challenging the closure of community schools and directed the government to pay teachers their salaries.

The court expressed its annoyance over the finance secretary’s failure to submit a comprehensive report on how much of the Rs66 billion collected as Iqra tax the government spent on education. A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, comprising Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez, was hearing petitions filed against the closure of basic education community schools after devolution. More than 15,000 teachers of basic education community schools have not been paid their salaries since July. Teachers maintain that the federal government cannot be absolved of responsibility since the constitution guarantees the right to education to every child between 8 and 16 years of age.

During the course of hearing, Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Anwarul Haq informed the court that the National Commission for Human Development and community schools were devolved to the provinces in light of the 18th amendment. He said the existence of ghost schools was one of the drawbacks of the project.

The chief justice asked the AGP to point out a single corruption-free institution. “Nobody makes the effort to rectify matters.” He regretted that despite summons, the concerned officers were reluctant to appear before the court.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2011.

COMMENTS (2)

gp65 | 13 years ago | Reply

One article says 15000 school teachers have not been paid salaries since July

One article says railway pensioners stopped trains for tunning becuase they were not paid pensionsfor 5 months.

We know that goods trains of Pakistan railway stopped working because money to repair the locomotives is not being made available

For a while huge power cuts were experienced because oil companies were not being paid.

There have been stories about how lack of maintenance of PIA aircrafts is putting people's lives at risk (e.g. a plane with a malfunctioning hydraulics engine was certified flightworthy and 550 pasengers' lives would have been at risk if the passengers themselves had not created a fuss

The government claims that the budget deficit has been narrowed down to 1.1% of GDP. Well if government does not pay committed expenses, deficit wil go down - but is this the right way or does the government finally have to bite the bullet and actually review defense expenses?

Pundit | 13 years ago | Reply

"More than 15,000 teachers of basic education community schools have not been paid their salaries since July"

Not surprising since the 2011 annual budget for education is less than the daily expense on salaries+operating budget of the army.

Its all a matter of priorities.

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