PESHAWAR, Oct 2: The Joint Action Committee of private educational institutions has criticised the provincial government’s decision of levying term deposit receipts and inspection fee again on private schools.

Speaking at a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Monday, JAC president Haji Ulas Khan Khalil and secretary Fazalullah Daudzai threatened to launch a protest campaign against the move and challenge it in courts.

They said former governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah had abolished the charges.

They said the Islami Nizamat-i-Taleem, NWFP, the All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association, National Educational Council and Iqra Schools System were members of the JAC and they had decided not to pay the fees.

They said they would hold protest demonstrations in every district if the decision was not withdrawn.

They claimed that the term deposit receipt was a financial burden on private educational institutions.

Under the decision, every private school is bound to deposit Rs10,000 with the intermediate boards for 10 years. The boards can receive interest on the amount, expected to reach Rs10 million.

The JAC leaders said the ‘un-Islamic’ decision had been taken by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government, which was committed to abolishing interest in the province.

Instead of encouraging the private schools, the MMA government was creating problems for them, they said.

They said the private schools were playing their role in increasing the literacy rate but the government had not given their students books free of cost under the scheme launched in this regard.

They said the government had pledged while presenting the budget to provide two teachers to each private school but the promise had not been fulfilled.

In reply to a question, they said the intermediate boards could not dictate the private institutions as they had only a monitoring role.