LAHORE:
It appears that the cash-starved federal government is trying to save every single penny it can in the face of a deepening financial crisis. The government has closed down one of its schools in Lahore and fired its staff without any prior notice.
The staff and students of OPF Girls College’s school section, which is managed by the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF), have rejected and subsequently protested the government decision.
In an order issued by OPF’s education division, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, the staff was told, “In pursuance of a decision of the board of governors, OPF Girls College (school section), Lahore, a project of this organisation has been closed (down) with immediate effect.”
The staff was further told that their services were no more required and hence terminated with immediate effect.
On Monday, OPF officials visited the school to hand ‘termination letters’ to the staff and to put the students on notice. But the staff refused to receive the letters and the team returned to Islamabad promising that the staff’s reservations would be conveyed to the OPF bosses.
On Tuesday, the school’s staff and a large number of parents of the affected students protested against the government’s decision and demanded that the president, prime minister and minister for overseas Pakistanis review the decision because the future of hundreds of students was at stake.
“Our children will not be able to get admission in any other institution mid-year due to the difference in curricula,” the father of one affected student told The Express Tribune.
The protesting staff and parents were carrying banners and placards inscribed with demands for the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of this issue.
In this connection, the affected parents have also sent a three-page application to OPF’s managing director, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune.
“On January 16, 2012 we are informed through the school management that the OPF Lahore campus is going to close (down) with immediate effect. We spoke to the four-member team came from Islamabad and the regional office Lahore who categorically said that the school will remain open … however, the teachers of the school said the school is going to be closed down,” reads the application.
“We called the OPF Islamabad office and talked to Iftikhar Ahmed, general manager OPF education division, who informed us that the school is going to be closed due to financial loses. Khawar Noor, GM OPF regional office Lahore, also said that the school might be closed down,” the application adds.
On the other hand, Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Dr Farooq Sattar has taken serious notice of this decision because “it was not discussed in the board of governors meeting that he had chaired on December 19, 2011.”
The minister directed OPF officials not to implement the decision, sources within the ministry told The Express Tribune. Sattar also convened another meeting on Wednesday to resolve this issue.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 19th, 2012.
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Senseless decision makers. They should cut down their operational expense as well as Assemblies budgets and levy education tax on ministers and senators who are enjoying every thing on the taxes of people and totally failed to provide budget to literate their masses for the development and future of this country.