Author Topic: Future of 3,800 students, 525 staff of the Yaqeen Model Schoolkarachi at stake  (Read 1077 times)

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Future of 3,800 students, 525 staff  of the Yaqeen Model Schoolkarachi at stake

Karachi:The future of approximately 3,800 students and 525 teaching and non-teaching staff of the Yaqeen Model School System (YMSS) are at stake, as the major school project is said to be in doldrums after the school chairman fled overseas.

Chairman, Syed Muhammad Hussain, who has allegedly committed fraud at a large scale, did not pay a single rupee to the teachers and non-teaching staff for the past few months and has fled to Canada, The News has learnt.

The YMSS offered O Level and Matriculation-based education as well as Madressa schooling to the students and had earned a good reputation among the teachers, students, parents and other stake holders.

The YMSS was launched in 1994 at Dhorajee and Tipu Sultan Road. Initially, the campus at Dhorajee offered elementary education and branch at Tipu Sultan Road provided secondary education to the students. Later, YMSS expanded to nine operational branches and a couple of buildings were under-construction when the news of fraud spread among the staff and parents of the students. However, only three of the buildings were registered with the concerned authorities.

The management of the school buildings are now trying to occupy the buildings to run the schools under different names. The school building situated at C-12, C Area, Block, 7-8, PECHS, Shaheed-e-Millat Road, is registered for O Level education and it is also registered with Director of Private Institutions, Sindh (DPIS) and another branch at Al-Hamra Cooperative Housing Society, located at 13 Main Shaheed-e-Millat Road is also on the list of DPIS.

One of the major stakeholders, Javed Masood, a businessman, has adopted a school situated in PECHS and another located in North Nazimabad. He had individually paid more than Rs6.2 million in lieu of dues to the teachers and non-teaching staff and also informed them that he would pay the remaining amount as soon as possible, The News learnt.

Mufti Muhammad Din, Imam of Bilal Mosque, located at Main Abul Hasan Ispahani Road and Principal of Quran School, Boys Section had said that he would also pay the dues in the future. He was hired on Rs50,000 per month salary to run the Quran School administration and now he had taken charge of the said branch on his own.

The owners of Dhorajee Campus, Muhammad Aamir and Imran, two brothers who run their businesses in Dubai, had hired Major Mehtab Alam and Commander Ghulam Abbas to look after the affairs of the school. Both retired army personnel were allegedly involved in cheating the YMSS in the past and now they have full control over the administration of the said campus.

Furthermore, on July 16, when the then administration at YMSS fired all the staff without any intimation, Maj Alam came forward and asked the employees to agree on the handing over of four campuses to the existing administration and for their cooperation he would give them four months’ salary.

Unfortunately, many people signed the deal but did not get any amount and their dues for the past three-four months are still not clear till filing of this report. The new administration has registered the same schools with new names within a day. The campus situated at Main Abul Hasan Ispahani Road is now called Al-Aira School and it would be open from August 10.

In 2004, Syed Muhammad Hussain, who was the member of the Board of Directors (BoD), took the control of entire YMSS in his hand and in May 2005, he sidelined many of the members of the BoD and hired new people. The office of the Secretariat of Chairman was filed with favourites. Geaty Aamir, popularly known as Aisha Aamir joined the office as Personal Assistant (PA) to the Chairman YMSS and within a year she pushed up to the post of Deputy Chief Operating Officer. She also visited London on YMSS expenses.

The chairman sold his personal brand new car to the YMSS for a payment of Rs1,000,000 and no transfer of ownership ever took place. Later, he once again sold the car to another party for Rs750,000 and not a single rupee was transferred in the accounts of YMSS - all the money went into the chairman’s personal bank account in Canada.

After initial success, problems began to show when in November 2006 late salary payment became an issue. Thereinafter, the situation got worse by the day. As many as 125 people were fired from YMSS and the remaining were not paid by the YMSS management.

The rent for the Head Office of YMSS, located at B-41, Journalists Society, Block 4A, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, was Rs0.55 million - the first floor of the building was used for personal reasons by the chairman.

Parents were paying Rs2,000 to Rs2,500 tuition fees to the schools as well as Rs20,000 security deposits at the time of admission. Several parents told The News that the van driver told them that the school would open from August 10 as the management has been changed and new people had taken charge.

Directorate of DPIS, Mansoob Siddiqui, has constituted a four-member committee and asked them to report within three days. Saleh Bhutto, Deputy Director Complains, DPIS; Razak Qazi, Assistant Director (Regional Director) DPIS; Sharaf Uz Zaman, Chairman, Private Schools Management Association and Faisal Rizwan, Administrator, Metropolitan School would be part of this committee.