Revenue shortfall: Boards stopped from collecting certificate fee

Private schools association petitioned the LHC to stop discrimination against their students.

RAWALPINDI: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday suspended a notification of the Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) demanding extra fee for issuing matriculation certificates to private schools’ students in Punjab.

Justice Khawaja Imtiaz Ahmed of the LHC’s Rawalpindi bench stopped the BISE from collecting Rs550 with admission forms from private school students till January 23 and asked the chairman of the examination board to submit a written reply.

“It’s irrational on the part of BISE Rawalpindi to collect the fee for secondary school certificate (SSC) from the candidates yet to appear in the examination,” maintained the petitioner, All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association President Abrar Ahmed Khan.

The petitioner stated that the BISE Rawalpindi like seven other examination boards in Punjab were collecting the certificate fee in advance to make up for the financial loss suffered after the Punjab government exempted the students of government schools from registration and admission fees.



It is discrimination on the part of the BISE to collect the certificate fee from private students in advance while exempting government school students from the registration fee, the petitioner said.

The petitioner has also challenged the imposition of Rs200 as processing fee from every student along with Rs800 as registration fee.

To support its faulty online registration system, the BISE is overcharging private students by collecting Rs220 as processing fee, said the petitioner’s counsel, Rahila Saleem Sabuhi. Earlier, the admission form cost Rs10.

The LHC however did not stop the BISE from collecting the processing fee and directed the chairman BISE, chairman Punjab Boards Committee of Chairmen PBCC and secretary higher education department Punjab.

CAA and NLC ordered to settle rent

In another case, Justice Ahmed directed the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and National Logistics Cell (NLC) to resolve the issue of rent payment for CAA’s land on Rawal Road.

NLC project director for Chandni Chowk Flyover, Brig. Tahir Manzoor informed the court that the two organisations had yet to reach at an agreement on the rent, but he did not give any reasons for the delay.

CAA had filed a petition for recovery of rent that NLC has accrued on land near Benazir Bhutto Hospital during the construction of a flyover on Chandni Chowk.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2013.