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KARACHI: Officers of Sindh Employees’ Social Security Institution (SESSI), Government of Sindh, have illegally sealed a private school, placing the education of hundreds of students at stake.
Instead of conducting an audit, increasing registration and recovery, SESSE field officers are allegedly involved in illegal activities to blackmail schools. The situation is such that not a single school or worker has been registered to regain social security benefits.
SESSI employees stopped the registration of factories, mills, shopping malls, chain of stores, contribution of workers across the city and are involved in such illegal activities have started sealing schools for not admitting their children and paying bribes.
SESSI officials along with government auctioneer, Fawad Mansoor, visited the school yesterday and sealed the Matriculation Campus of Meritorious School located in PECHS Block 2. Without having an authority letter, the officers came to seal the school and also harassed staff members.
The school was earlier given a notice by the social security officers to deposit Rs 9 lakh or else an audit would be conducted. The school administration responded they fully abide by the rules but the audit is not applicable as they have a minimum salary of Rs30,000 while the Sindh government has stipulated a minimum wage of Rs25,000.
The school informed the social security officers that earlier personal security guards were employed but now security guards have been posted from a private company, hence social security insurance is not applicable here. Nevertheless, social security officials continued demanding money from the school administration to settle the matter.
It should be noted that apart from minimum wage fixed by the government, contribution of 20 percent to social security is mandatory or else action can be taken under the Land Revenue Act.
SESSI officers brought a government auctioneer to a private school. An auctioneer is only brought where the value of any property is to be ascertained and it needs to be auctioned off and 10% of it is given to the auctioneer.
SESSI officers made another illegal offer to the administration to de-seal the school, saying the school administration to pay Rs45,000 and the matter will be resolved after discussion at their office. However, they sealed the school’s laboratory after the amount was refused.
In this regard, SESSI director Ali Akbar Mangi, who was handling the entire case, was contacted but he declined to comment.
On the orders of director Ali Akbar Mangi, City Directorate-1 Audit Officer Faraj Ali Qureshi along with others have put the future of students at stake. There are currently about 300 students and 15 faculty members at the Matriculation Section.
It may be recalled that Education Minister Syed Sardar Shah had recently said in a statement that the officials of Labour Department, SESSI would not blackmail any educational institution or disrupting the educational process. Despite the claims, the authority have sealed the school, against which school associations have also hinted at announcing their future course of action.
