December 17, 2006	Sunday	Ziqa'ad 25, 1427

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LAHORE, Dec 16: As Urdu Bazaar publishers and printers have been protesting for the last one week against government’s policy of getting textbooks printed through contractors, the Punjab education department is sticking to its guns claiming it is the most transparent and hassle-free system to get quality books on competitive rates.

In this connection, Anjuman-i-Tajran, Urdu Bazaar, Lahore, had launched the protest by organising a hunger strike camp at Urdu Bazaar Chowk on Dec 9. They criticised the policy of issuing tenders and then awarding textbook printing contracts.

The printers and publishers are also critical of the increase in paper prices from Rs32,000 to Rs44,000 per ton. They are demanding that the millers should withdraw the `unwarranted’ increase in paper prices. They suggested that the government should break the monopoly of a few paper mill owners and allow import of quality stuff on competitive rates.

The Anjuman-i-Tajran, who continued their protest on Saturday, blocked traffic on Circular Road stretch between Lohari and Bhatti gates.

Anjuman president Khalid Pervaiz said the publishers, printers and all others related to the textbook business would organise a mass protest rally on Friday next followed by three-day shutter-down strike in the market. He said the printers and publishers from all over the province would participate in the protest demonstration.

Answering a question, Mr Pervaiz, who is also chairman of the Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers Association, Lahore, said Punjab Education Minister Mian Imran Masood had invited the printers and publishers to hold talks on the issue. However, Mr Pervaiz admitted that the body had refused the offer saying that they would only go to meet with Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi, and everybody else should come to the market (Urdu Bazaar) to hold any kind of dialogue.

When contacted, Punjab Education Secretary Syed Akhlaq Gillani said the education department had introduced the policy of issuing tenders and awarding textbook printing contracts to ensure that it could get quality books on competitive rates.

Initially, he said, the government had got printed books for pre-class I and Class-VI through tenders to supply these to students free of cost under the Punjab Education Sector Reforms Programme. He said the experiment proved successful as not only rates came down, the quality of textbooks also improved. Consequently, he said, the education department decided to bring out the Class-IX and X textbooks under the purview of Punjab Textbook Board (PTB).

Mr Gillani said there were 106 printers registered with the PTB, out of which only 34 were actually in the business. He observed that most of the printers had got themselves registered twice or thrice, under different names. He also observed that most of these printers had got themselves registered against directives issued by different chief ministers’ and obtained A and B categories during the last two decades.

He said the system of issuing tenders and awarding contracts to lowest bidders was showing great results as the education department was getting textbooks in a finished shape at reasonable prices.

As the education department is awarding printing contracts through open bidding, Mr Gillani said the “protesting” printers and publishers were not black-listed and they could also submit bids to get the contracts.

On the other hand, he said, the protests were uncalled for as even after the open bidding, the textbooks would continue to be printed, published and bound in Punjab and the new system would surely not make people linked to the industry jobless. “The whole world is moving towards competition, why these printers and publishers do not want to compete,” he asked.

Sheikhupura Association of Industries’ General Secretary Manzoor Malik said the prices of paper had slightly been increased owing to an increase in fuel and power rates.

He said the government had recently cut gas connections of the mills, and they were compelled to shift the machines to the furnace oil to keep the mills running. Similarly, he said, the cost of transportation of raw material to mills had also increased, besides the prices of chemicals. “This led to the increase in paper prices,” he argued.