KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday expressed displeasure over the lethargic attitude of the provincial government towards filing its response on a set of petitions seeking effective protection for public and private educational institutions across the province.

Headed by Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, a two-judge bench put off till Sept 8 the hearing of the petitions of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education Research (Piler) and others, who said that the educational institutions across the country were under threat of attacks by banned organisations in the wake of terror attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar.

The chief justice observed that the inaction on the part of the authorities concerned was beyond comprehension, while the security issues had become too complicated and complex.

The provincial government law officer, however, sought time for filing comments of the respondent authorities.

The petitioners said that as per reports published in the media, welfare schools run by communities in Karachi were at high risk.

They added that some private institutions and schools had also complained of receiving threats.

According to them, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Islamabad Capital Territory had formulated standard operating procedure (SOP) directing the school administrations to adopt measures, including raising boundary wall topped with razor wire, and installing closed-circuit television cameras.

However, they said, nothing had been done to promulgate such SOP in the province, where the authorities had placed the responsibility for educational institutions’ protection either on the school managements or on parents.

The petitioners asked the court to direct the government to provide foolproof security to the educational institutions in the province and declare that VIP security to politicians and ministers without reasonable classification was discriminatory and unlawful.

A contempt application was also filed during one of the hearings. It was submitted that the court had ordered the education authorities to conduct a survey of all schools, pinpointing which of them were more vulnerable. Besides, the court had directed them to ascertain if the burden of such additional security had been passed onto parents of students.

However, they said, no such report had been filed but in an attempt to misguide the court, and the so-called report that was filed was without a survey of schools.

The applicants submitted that perusal of the so-called report clearly showed that no compliance with the courts’ two orders had been done because no survey had been conducted and no information submitted regarding whether the burden of the additional security had been passed onto guardians of students.

The special education secretary had earlier informed the court that the government had allocated Rs7,636.09 million funds for the security of schools while the survey results of 18 districts had been received.

He also informed the court that the education department had sent PC-I for security and raising and constructing compound walls of 8,417 schools of the province at an estimated cost of Rs7,636.09 million.

The court was also informed by the education department that instructions containing special security measures to face any untoward situation in private schools and colleges were sent to the institutions concerned.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2016