LAHORE: The Punjab Education Initiative Management Authority (PEIMA) on Wednesday cancelled the licenses of over 1,600 partner schools, citing newly introduced conditions.
The report revealed that a large number of these licenses were issued to NGOs and individual partners.
PEIMA has now invited fresh applications to re-contract these schools, the last date of which has been fixed as May 10. An application fee of Rs 10,000 has also been imposed.
Speaking on the issue, Sadaqat Hussain Khan Lodhi, provincial convener of PEIMA School Licenses, expressed strong reservations and said that the distribution of schools on political grounds instead of merit would be unacceptable.
He pointed out that the licensees had invested lakhs of rupees to make the schools functional under a three-year contract. He added that tightening the conditions at the end of the contract period and cancelling the licenses without due consideration is unfair to the partner schools.
Lodhi urged PEIMA to review and withdraw the decision, and demanded that licenses be restored to provide a fair opportunity to partner schools.
He also issued a warning that if the demands were not met, the license holders would be left with no option but to protest.
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