PESHAWAR: A lawyer on Thursday moved the Peshawar High Court against the recent move of the provincial government to reduce the supply of free textbooks to students of government schools in the province.

In the petition, Fawad Afzal Khan Safi requested the court to declare illegal a notification issued by the government on Jan 26, 2024, to “drastically” reduce the number of textbooks to be provided to schoolchildren free of charge.

He also sought interim relief from the court, saying the impugned notification should be suspended until the final verdict on his petition.

The petitioner said that through that notification, the government had reduced the “rate” of free textbook supply to the students of government schools from 100 per cent to 80 per cent in grades 4-5 and 50 per cent in grades 6–12.

The respondents in the petition are the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government through its chief secretary and the secretary of the elementary and secondary education department.

The petitioner said that the Constitution (Eighteenth Amendment) Act was enacted on April 10, 2010, and through it, a new article 25-A was also incorporated into the Constitution of Pakistan.

He said that Article 25-A of the Constitution declared that the state should provide free and compulsory education to all children under the age of five in such manner as may be determined by the law.

Mr Safi said the constitutional provision was meant to provide free education to children as the literacy rate was 55.3 per cent in 2010, which was very low compared to the other underdeveloped Asian countries.

He said since Article 25-A was inserted in the Constitution, the government used to provide free textbooks to all students in government schools.

The petitioner said education was a fundamental right of people and played a vital role in the development of the country.

He contended that the impugned notification was issued in violation of Article 25-A of the Constitution.

Mr Safi claimed that the government’s notification would discourage students and cause them to drop out.

He said the Punjab government released Rs1.6 billion in the current month for providing free textbooks to students across the province.

The petitioner added that the rest of the two provinces also ensured the free delivery of textbooks.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2024