After SC orders: FIA launches crackdown on private schools, seizes records

KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has launched a crackdown on private schools receiving exorbitant tuition fee on the directives of the Supreme Court.

Officers of the FIA raided different private schools in Karachi, Lahore, Sukkur and other parts of the country today and seized their fee records.

FIA officials raided 16 schools, including City School, Generation School and Beacon School, in Karachi and seized their records.

A spokesperson for the FIA said relevant record of almost all private schools has been seized in Lahore.

Yesterday, the SC cut fee of private schools by 20 per cent and directed them to refund 50 per cent of the fee charged by them during the summer vacation.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar, who headed a bench of the apex court, had given this order while hearing a suo motu case related to fee hike.

The bench capped the annual increase in tuition fee at five per cent and directed the Federal Board of Revenue to scrutinise fee records and accounts of private schools.

The audit reports of Lahore General School and Beaconhouse School System were submitted in court, which said that the directors and top officials of the schools had received Rs62 million in salaries in 2017. A total of Rs512m was spent on employees’ salaries in one year, while Rs5.2 billion was spent in five years, the report read, adding that various facilities were also provided.

 

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