THIS is with reference to my earlier letters ‘School exploitation’ (Sept 13, 2020) and ‘Worth of a portal’ (Nov 7, 2020). In response to my complaints registered on the Citizen Portal – a total of four by now – the office of the Inspection and Registration of Private Institutions, Karachi, issued directives to the private college concerned four times to ensure compliance. The department also asked the college concerned twice to explain its position.

However, it is disappointing that the management of the said private college has blatantly refused to adhere to all the four directives and has not refunded our admission fee, which comes to about Rs200,000.

This amount is more than three times the monthly tuition fee, which, we understand, is against the applicable act, ordinance and rules concerned. The college is unnecessarily delaying our refund owing to unknown reasons. Even the four complaints and the subsequent four directives did not make any impact on anyone.

Such disregard by a private college for a government department is alarming since these directives came through the Citizen Portal, which is monitored by the Prime Minister Office. It also raises question about the effectiveness of the portal as it marked all the four complaints as ‘resolved’, whereas no relief has been provided to the complainant.

Nadeem Esbhani

Karachi

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2021