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School owners term the order “injustice to students” as exams are just around the corner
LAHORE: The private schools are planning to file a review petition in the Supreme Court (SC) against the judgment of the apex court in which it had ordered all the private schools located in the cantonment areas of the country to vacate the premises of the cantonment boards, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Following the orders of the SC passed in October 2017, different cantonment boards of the country have started serving notices to the private schools to vacate the cantonment areas within 15 days otherwise the school properties would be sealed by the concerned authorities.
The data obtained by Pakistan Today reveals that both elite and small schools are located in 45 cantonment boards across the country, and the total number of private schools in these cantonment boards is 30,000.
Speaking to Pakistan Today, Kashif Adeeb Jawdani, president of the All Pakistan Private School Management Association (APPSMA), said that the apex court has given its ruling in the case that had been pending for over 17 years at different forums.
“It was basically a case of two individuals of Rawalpindi Cantonment Board in which a person approached the court by taking a plea that no one can hold any commercial activity in the cantonment board and therefore the court should pass a decree to stop the commercial activities within the vicinity of the cantonment areas,” Jawdani said. He further told that the court gave the judgment without hearing the private schools who are the main stakeholders in the case as they would be affected drastically if the order is implemented in letter and spirit.
He was of the view that some 13 petitions would be filed on Monday in the court to seek some relief. “The cantonment boards have been taking commercialisation fee from the private schools for long and now they are issuing them notices following the orders of the apex court,” he said.
It is worth mentioning here that several cantonment boards including the Lahore Cantonment Board, Rawalpindi Cantonment Board, Chaklala Cantonment Board and Cantonment Board of Quetta have issued notices to several private schools located in their respective vicinity. Rawalpindi Cantonment Board has issued notices to many schools including Daar-e-Arqam, The City School, Beachonhouse, and Fauji Foundation School, which have a large setup of school chains countrywide. Moreover, a notice was sent to the Allied School by the Chaklala Cantonment Board to vacate the cantonment premises.
Sharing the figures with this scribe, Kashif Mirza, the president of his own faction of private schools named All Pakistan Private School Federation (APPSF), said that over 4 million students are enrolled right now in over 30,000 private schools in cantonment boards while 0.3 million teachers are also associated with these schools. “It would be sheer injustice with the students at this juncture keeping in view that their exams are going on,” he said while adding that they are also chalking out a plan to file a review petition in the Supreme Court. He further said that the private schools are being targeted as there are many other commercial activities going on in the cantonment boards as well including those of restaurants, private hospitals and beauty parlours.
Meanwhile, joint action committee of the private school association has also shown solidarity with these schools while saying that all other private schools would be shut down in protest if even a single private school is sealed in the cantonment boards.
Qazi Naeem Anjum, the representative of private schools in the District Education Authority of Lahore told Pakistan Today that so far he had not received any complaint filed by the private school, but it has come to his knowledge that notices were being issued to the schools in different cities.
