LAHORE: The Textbook Publishers Association (TPA) on Thursday demanded from the government to direct the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB) to issue them no objection certificate and withdraw its hefty fee for publishing textbooks under the Single National Curriculum (SNC).

The association members held a press conference here to address the problems for publishing books under the new curriculum.

Earlier, the PCTB had directed all the publishers to get clearance certificates for publishing any book, imposing a heavy NOC fee for publishing the new 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.

TPA president Fawaz Niaz said that the unreasonable restrictions were imposed by the PCTB regarding ban on sale of textbooks of private publishers in Punjab and also unreasonable warnings being issued against lawful trade activities. He said the PCTB was allowing its partner publishers to publish books for private schools and was not issuing NOC to them.

“Around 20 million people are associated with publishing books in Punjab and it is like ruining their business,” he said.

He said the association had 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. “The PCTB is trying to monopolise the publishing trade and finishing the lawful trade of private publishers,” he said.

Mr Niaz further said the PCTB was not giving them NOC and was using delaying tactics to ruin their business and on the other hand its partners were publishing books for private schools. He demanded that the government should first minimise the NOC fee and also issue the private publishers NOC and stop its partners from publishing SNC books.

The association members demanded that Chief Minister Usman Buzdar take notice of the matter and address their grievances.

TPA core committee members Abuzar Gohar, Ahmad Usman Shah, Altaf Gohar and Muhammad Aamir were present in the conference.

Later, the association members also organised a protest outside the press club against the PCTB for not allowing them to publish SNC books.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2021