LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday dismissed multiple identical petitions challenging the outsourcing of government schools in Punjab. Justice Shahid Karim announced the verdict on the petitions filed by Aitzaz Hassan and others. The petitioners had contested the Punjab government’s decision to outsource government schools. During the hearing, a government’s lawyer explained that non-functional government schools were being outsourced under a public-private partnership model. The lawyer also assured that these outsourced schools would remain under the supervision of the government. The petitioners expressed concerns that privatisation of government schools might lead to an increase in fees, depriving children from low-income families of access to basic education. Additionally, the petitions argued that the government’s decision to outsource schools was against the law and should, therefore, be declared null and void. Last month, Justice Asim Hafeez of the LHC passed a detailed judgement dismissing a set of petitions against outsourcing the management of public sector schools through the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF). The judge observed that the policy decisions require political judgment, not legal interpretation. “Neither any violation of constitutional guarantee is established nor violation of any provision of The Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act 2014 is shown,” Justice Hafeez noted in his decision. An anti-terrorism court on Wednesday disposed of pre-arrest bail petitions of five more workers of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) after a joint investigation team (JIT) found them innocent in the Jinnah House attack case. A representative of the JIT submitted a report before the court during hearing of the pre-arrest bail petitions filed by the suspects. He said charges against the suspects, including Usman Qadri, Kamran, Shahid Khan, Shayan Saeed and Syed Dabeerul Hassan, were not established in the investigation. Consequently, the lawyers for the suspects requested the court to withdraw bail applications based on the JIT’s findings. ATC-I Judge Manzer Ali Gill accepted the request and disposed of the bail petitions. Previously, the JIT found as many as 30 PTI activists innocent in the Jinnah House attack case, prompting the court to dispose of their bail pleas. Sarwar Road police had registered the FIR against leaders and workers of the PTI for attacking and vandalising the Jinnah House during the May 9 riots of the last year against the arrest of former premier Imran Khan.