LAHORE: The Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers Association on Tuesday demanded withdrawal of the hefty no objection certificate fee for publishing textbooks under the Single National Curriculum (SNC).

The association wrote a letter to Punjab Minister for School Education Murad Raas to protest the increase in the NOC fee from Rs 10,000 to Rs150,000 for publishing NSC textbooks.

Earlier, the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB) had directed all the publishers to get clearance certificates for publishing any book, imposing a heavy NOC fee for publishing NSC textbooks.

The PCTB directed the publishers, printers and schools to get clearance and approval to publish any book from Class-I to XII. It warned of action under the PCTB Act 2015, including imposition of fine or registration of criminal cases, in case of violation.

The publishers would have to submit the publishing material to the PCTB for getting approval and the NOC as no book would be allowed to be published without approval.

The association letter states, “We protest the unreasonable restriction being imposed by the PCTB regarding ban on sales of textbooks of private publishers in Punjab and also unreasonable warnings being issued against lawful trade activities.

The association fully endorses the introduction of Single National Curriculum but has strong reservation on introduction of a single book for all students and prescribing a hefty fee of Rs150,000 for review of private publishers manuscripts of textbooks submitted before it based on SNC.”

It further states “imposing such policy will severely compromise the educational standards in Punjab and PCTB is trying to monopolise the publishing trade and finish the lawful trade of private publishers against its given authority.”

It demanded the minister to take immediate notice of the situation.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2020