KARACHI – The Sindh government has refused to issue weapons licences to private schools, reportedly due to the huge number of institutes operating in the metropolis. After the twin blasts at the Islamic University in Islamabad, the Sindh home secretary had agreed with management representatives of private schools that the institutions would be allowed to keep licensed arms for ensuring safety of students and staff and take strict security measures on their own.
However, the plan of the Sindh Home Department was recently dropped due to the huge number of private schools operating in the metropolis and inadequate monitoring of the institutions by the Sindh Directorate of Private Institutions, well-placed sources told Pakistan Today. A few months ago, the Sindh government had issued an eight-point security plan to the city’s private educational institutions, keeping in view the threat of terrorism in the country.
Besides, the Directorate of Private Institutions had also formed inspection teams to ensure implementation of the government’s given comprehensive security plan at the institutions. Under the security plan, the administrations of private schools were supposed to issue identity cards to school bus drivers and vendors; avoid any crowds outside the school buildings; and ban the entry of unknown persons inside the premises.
The school managements were also instructed to develop close liaison with the area police officials concerned and town nazims. They were requested to force students not to go outside schools during recess and not allow the school parking area to be used by unknown people while a list of emergency phone numbers should be fixed inside the schools.
The sources opined that the plan of issuing arms licences was cancelled as thousands of private educational institutions were operating in the metropolis and the reputed schools already have security arrangements with prominent private security agencies.
The sources claimed that issuance of licences to schools would also create severe problems for the law enforcement agencies to properly monitor the legal use of weapons by the school administration.
