LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday set aside a decision of the Punjab caretaker government of renting out Lawrence Road examination centre for non-educational purposes.

The court passed this order on a petition of President Punjab Teachers Union Kashif Shahzad and others.

The petitioners’ counsel Mian Dawood argued that the Punjab government had taken a stance that it was renting out the examination centres’ building due to financial losses. He said the government also took a plea of traffic congestions around the Lawrence Road.

He argued that the superior courts had long settled the point that a property allocated for education purpose cannot be used for any other purpose. A law officer argued that the government had the power to take the building on rent. Asked about the purpose to get the examination centres on rent, the law officer said staff of the High Education Department (HED) would be shifted to the building. The court considered the reply of the law officer as the government’s admission to seek the building for non-education purposes.

The court observed that the record showed that the government forced the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) to get the examination centre’s building on rent. The BISE counsel stated that the board could rent out its properties. The court after hearing the parties at length directed the government to formally advertise if it wanted to rent out the building of the examination centres but only for education purposes.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024