While announcing a reserved judgement on Monday the Supreme Court (SC) observed that provision of education to children from the age of 5 to 16 years was mandatory under Article 25A of the Constitution of Pakistan.
However, the SC declared proposed decision of the federal government to close Basic Education Community Schools (BECS) project as unlawful and in violation of Constitutional provisions, as it guaranteed basic education to citizens. In its detailed judgement over the pleas against the proposed closure of the BECS project, a three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez observed that the government's proposed action of closing down 'Establishment and Operation of Basic Education Community Schools' is without lawful authority and of no legal effect and in violation of Article 25-A of the Constitution.
The court observed that the respondent (government) was directed on October 21, 2011 to pay the salaries of the teachers/staff of the BECS and submit compliance report, but the court received no compliance report so far. The court directed the Finance Secretary to comply with the October 21, 2011 order in letter and spirit and submit compliance report not later than seven days to the SC.
The petitioners had sought the apex court order against the proposed closure of a total of 15,101 BECS having 561,000 enrolled students across the country launched under National Commission for Human Development (NCHD). The BECS project, running all over the country with 15,101 BECS and 561,000 students, was launched under the National Education Foundation project.
After passage of 18th 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. During the hearing of the pleas, the court was informed by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Salman Siddique that from 1984 to 1994, Rs 66 billion were collected under Iqra Education Surcharge.
BECS's Project Director Ms Sadia apprised the court that the project was a brainchild of the education ministry in 1995 and in 1998 the then government decided to increase number of schools from 10,000 to 68,000 and afterwards when it was decided to close down the project, they prepared a PC-1 and presented it to the then prime minister. The court was also informed that the NCHD and National Education Commission were the subjects of the federal legislature, adding that under Article 270AA, the subject was protected.