Unjustly booked: Private schools in Pindi threaten to stage protest

Demand action against police officer who arrested principal of a school

RAWALPINDI: An association of private schools in Rawalpindi threatened on Thursday to stage protest demonstrations outside the Westridge police station for registering an allegedly false criminal case against a school principal.

The All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association (APPSMA) in a statement on Thursday noted that the regional police officer and the city police officer needed to take serious notice of the FIR registered against Shahid Mahmood, owner and principal of the Iqra Roza-tul-Itfaal school in Madina colony near Pirwadhai.

APPSMA-Rawalpindi President Abrar Ahmed said that Inspector Chaudhry Jamil, the SHO of Westridge Police Station, had registered a false case against Mahmood on September 30 for not hiring security guards and installing CCTV cameras at the school.

Ahmed told The Express Tribune that the school already had a security guard and closed-circuit cameras in accordance with directives even though it was a small school with around 80 students enrolled in it.

The APPSMA representative claimed that the officer had failed to give prior notices to the principal for lack of security arrangements. He added that the principal was booked and locked up at the station with men accused of rape, theft, and robbery.

He lamented that the police produced the principal in a court of law in handcuffs.

However, Magistrate Shahid Hameed on Thursday accepted Mahmood’s bail plea against surety bonds worth Rs50, 000.

Ahmed added that they would try to meet Regional Police Officer Wisal Fakhar Raja or City Police Officer Israr Ahmed Abbasi with the aim of seeking action against Westridge Police SHO. He noted that if the senior police officers took no action against the SHO, the private school owners would stage protest demonstration outside
the precincts.

Responding to the APPSMA statement, district police spokesperson Imran Shah said that the case against Mahmood was registered as per the law. He added that the SHO had issued the requisite notices to the principal for not having complete security measures at his school prior to arresting him.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2016.