80 schools across Sindh declared ‘highly sensitive’

CM has been asked for funds to secure these schools, additional AG informs high court

KARACHI: Around 80 schools across the province are 'highly sensitive' in terms of security measures, disclosed additional advocate-general Ghulam Mustafa Mahesar in a report submitted before the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday.

The two-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, was hearing a petition filed by the Pakistan Institute of Labor Education and Research (Piler) seeking directives for provincial authorities to boost security of educational institutes following the killing of over 130 children at the Army Public School in Peshawar two years ago.



Piler had filed the petition in January 2015, seeking directions to the Sindh government to ensure security to all the educational institutes in the province in order to avoid repetition of such a massacre.

Filing the report on behalf of provincial authorities, the law officer disclosed that there are 81 schools across the province that are 'most sensitive' in terms of security.

The report stated that a summary was forwarded to the chief minister requesting for funds to raise security walls around the buildings of these vulnerable schools. The report added that these funds are being sought outside the budgetary allocations made for fiscal year 2016-17.

Once these funds are provided, the report added, security walls will also be built around schools that face lesser security threats.

Taking the report on its record, the bench directed the law officer to submit a progress report with regard to the summary in question and on construction of the security walls around the sensitive and less sensitive schools. Mahesar will furnish the report by October 21.

Earlier hearings

In May last year, the court had ordered the education and home secretaries to conduct a survey to pinpoint vulnerable schools and take measures for their adequate security.

Later, on August 27, the education secretary had filed a compliance report on behalf of the chief secretary, saying that 8,417 educational institutes had been identified as 'sensitive'. He had further informed that a PC-I was prepared for undertaking security measures, including raising the height of boundary walls, at an estimated cost of over Rs7 billion. According to the report, it was also decided that the home department will issue arms licenses to the educational institutes for arming their security guards, while it was also proposed to launch an SMS alert service to intimate children and their parents in case of any crisis situation.



Filing another report, the special education secretary had on October 5, 2015 informed the court that the survey to identify the schools had been completed in 18 districts of the province. He had also informed that the government had provided funds worth Rs7.6 billion for security measures at these schools. The court had directed the provincial government to ensure that foolproof security is provided at the educational institutes after the disbursement of funds and a report on compliance of this order should be filed to the court.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2016.