<\/p>\n
The principal of Lahore\u2019s Aitchison College, Michael A. Thompson, tendered his resignation on Monday, citing \u201cprejudiced actions by Governor House\u201d and referring to them as \u201cunwarranted interference and brazen directives\u201d.<\/p>\n
Although the letter did not specify the reason for tendering the resignation, media reports suggested<\/a> the move was prompted by Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman\u2019s decision to waive the tuition fees for Minister for Economic Affairs and Est\u00adablishment Ahad Cheema\u2019s two sons.<\/p>\n The information minister, when asked to comment on the resignation and a letter written by the governor to the principal for waiving the tuition for Cheema\u2019s sons and granting them leave of absence, which has been seen by Dawn.com<\/em>, said that the children had not been studying at the institution for the past three years.<\/p>\n In a letter addressed to the college staff, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com<\/em>, Thompson said: \u201cThis is not how I planned to leave Aitchison, but I will share with you that a continuation of very poor governance has left me no other choice. Throughout my time as principal, I have done my very best to to protect the school\u2019s reputation while extending compassion to those in need.\u201d<\/p>\n However, he said that there was a difference between this pursuit and the presence of \u201cblatant policy manufacturing to accommodate certain individuals\u201d, adding that \u201csuch people simply insist on preferential treatment\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cPolitics and nepotism have no place in schools,\u201d Thompson asserted.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the past year, other prejudiced actions by Governor House have contributed to a breakdown of governance and management, under which I had to finally draw a line.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems incredulous to me, and quite possibly to most other people, that a school so successful can be subjected to such unwarranted interference and brazen directives,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cI leave on April 1 and will not play any role in the management of upcoming admissions,\u201d Thompson stated.<\/p>\n It should be mentioned that Thompson had also tendered his resignation in September 2018, allegedly under pressure from political circles for taking disciplinary action against some students.<\/p>\n According to reports, the principal was facing pressure from the Board of Governors of the college to give admission to the son of former MNA Kashmala Tariq in A-levels after he was expelled earlier.<\/p>\n However, he later withdrew<\/a> the resignation after then-Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar and provincial education ministers visited him<\/a> to convince him to do so.<\/p>\n Two months before that, the government had revoked the visa of Thomson, an Australian citizen, because he had allegedly denied admission to a boy from an influential family. Later, it had extended<\/a> the visa only for three months while more than one year was left in the expiry of his job contract.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar asserted that Cheema\u2019s children had not been studying at the college for the past three years, which was why a fee waiver was sought.<\/p>\n Asked to comment on the matter during a press conference in Islamabad, Tarar said, \u201cAs far as Ahad Khan Cheema\u2019s matter is concerned, his children were not studying there (at Aitchison) for the past three years.\u201d<\/p>\n Referring to a letter, seen by Dawn.com<\/em> and written by Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman \u2014 also the president of the college\u2019s Board of Governors \u2014 to Thompson, Tarar said it mentioned that Cheema\u2019s children had moved to Islamabad and were studying at a school there.<\/p>\n \u201cThe law allows that if you are not studying, then the fee is not paid for not studying. He submitted an application according to the law and rules that my children are not studying there so why is the tuition [due],\u201d the minister said.<\/p>\n Recalling \u201ceducation reforms, scholarships [and] the laptop scheme\u201d, the PML-N leader said the matter was being \u201cgiven a wrong impression\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it is his right; his (Ahad\u2019s) wife submitted an application according to the law,\u201d Tarar asserted.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The principal of Lahore\u2019s Aitchison College, Michael A. Thompson, tendered his resignation on Monday, citing \u201cprejudiced actions by Governor House\u201d and referring to them as \u201cunwarranted interference and brazen directives\u201d. Although the letter did not specify the reason for tendering the resignation, media reports suggested the move was prompted by Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman\u2019s decision […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/03\/251557265b49f22.png?r=155848","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Cheema\u2019s children not studying at Aitchison: Tarar<\/h2>\n