The private educational institutions of Abbottabad have formed a District Education Forum, a parallel body to the Private Educational Institute Management Association (PIEMA).
The speakers, including school owners and principals of different private schools and colleges, said during a ceremony that the forum will allow private institutions to protect their rights and
also allow them to collectively counter the “pressure tactics of government institutions”.
They expressed the resolve to protect their rights and contribute their energies to imparting quality yet affordable education to the students of Abbottabad district. Furthermore, they criticised the role of PIEMA, which they believed had become ineffective as it has failed to protect the rights of the private schools.
While discussing the problems faced by their community, the speakers said that despite providing quality education, the institutes’ services are not being acknowledged by the government, which has instead levied professional tax on them. They termed the levies “unjust”.
The speakers said that their institutions fall under the category of non-governmental organisations, which were not liable to pay such taxes. They vowed to wage a joint struggle against the government policies detrimental to their progress.
On this occasion, Shehryar Mir, Naheed Gul Abbasi and Anjad Sohail were elected as chairman, vice chairman and general secretary of the forum respectively.
Published In The Express Tribune, June 27th, 2012.
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