Rs 66 billion collected as Iqra Surcharge: Supreme Court asks Secretary Finance to provide details

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed Secretary Finance Dr Waqar Masood to provide details of the Rs 66 billions, which were collected as Iqra Surcharge from 1985 to 1994. The apex court asked Attorney General for Pakistan Molvi Anwar-ul-Haq to get directions from the government on the matter of releasing salaries to more than 15,000 teachers of basic education community schools throughout the country whose wages have been stopped since current July.
A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez Khan was hearing petitions filed by Fiaqat Hussain and others against the Federation under Article 184 (3) regarding the closure of the project namely establishment and operation of basic education of community schools.
During last hearing of the case, representative of the Planning Commission, Asif Sheikh, presented July 29, 2011 notification which states the department related to National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) and National Education Foundation (NEF) were shifted to the Human Resource Division. On which the CJP asked as to why the salaries were not being issued to the community school employees since June 30, 2011.
Makdoom Ali Khan assisted the bench as amicus curiae while Kamal Azfar represented NCHD and Ali Zafar represented the petitioners. Attorney General for Pakistan and Additional Advocate Generals of the provinces, besides Secretary Finance Dr Waqar Massod and Chairman FBR Salaman Sidique also appeared before the bench. On the occasion, Chairman, Federal Board of Revenue, Salman Sidique was summoned by the SC, who apprised the bench that a total of Rs 66 billion were collected from 1985-1994 as Iqra Surcharge.
Secretary Finance Dr Waqar Masood was also summoned and directed to inform the bench on the next date of hearing that how much money was collected through the education tax and how much was spent on education so far. Makdom Ali Khan contended that the project could not be abolished without repealing the federal legislative list, whereas additional advocate generals of the provinces pleaded that provinces were not in a position to finance the community school project.
Makdom Ali Khan added that if parliamentarians and politicians were made bound to get their siblings educated from government schools and treated them from government hospitals then the condition of social sector would not be so worse. The CJP observed that public representatives were not paying heed to common citizens' education, adding that it has become much difficult for a common man's child to attain education in the existing circumstances as the elite class were running the education system in the real sense.
Justice Khilji Arif Hussain observed that at present a parent had to pay thousand of rupees to get his child register in a school, adding that if budgetary allocations for social sector were raised then how the substantial amount of expenses of large number of ministers could be arranged.
Kamal Azfar, counsel for the NCHD, contended that the federal government could not shirk from its responsibility to supplement the non-formal education. It is worth mentioning that the petitioners had contended that the provinces declined to own the project which was previously being run by the federal government before the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment, adding that the Federation could not be absolved of its constitutional obligation as it provides guarantee of education to every child between 8-16 years of age.
They also pleaded that Pakistan was expected to achieve literacy rate of 85 per cent by the year 2015, being signatory of the various global instruments including Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The court adjourned hearing till Friday (today).