While hearing a constitutional petition, the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the federal government not to close the community schools, running under the National Education Foundation project, until a final decision is taken. The court also directed the four provincial secretaries to submit their reply regarding the project on the next date of hearing.
A two-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, was hearing three constitutional petitions, filed through Agha Muhammad Ali Khan, who had made the Federation of Pakistan, through Secretary Planning and Development Division, and others as respondents.
The project, running all over Pakistan with 15,101 Basic Education Community Schools (BECS) and 561,000 students, was launched under the National Education Foundation project. After the 18th Constitution Amendment, the federal government initially handed over the project to the provinces, but decided to close it down after the provinces refused to own it.
Agha Muhammad Ali Khan, while giving arguments against the closure of the schools, said that the federal government was not absolved of its constitutional obligation under Article 25 (a) and 37 (b) of the Constitution, which provides guarantee of education to every child between 8-16 years of age.
Agha argued that Pakistan was expected to achieve literacy rate of 85 percent by the year 2015, being signatory to various global instruments including Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as well as Convention for Elimination of All Kind of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
The Chief Justice observed that the provinces' reluctance to own the community schools was an unconstitutional act, adding that for the public welfare, the provinces should own the project with open minds. The court adjourned the hearing till July 29.