Private schools get final vacation notices

RCB warns buildings to be razed in case of non-compliance

RAWALPINDI:

The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) has sent final notices to 229 private schools functioning in the residential areas to vacate buildings before the end of the year.

The notices have been served in the light of the orders of the Supreme Court.

The RCB has warned that the school buildings would be razed and lease rights would be revoked if they failed to comply with the final notices.

Three years ago, the RCB had termed the presence of private schools in residential areas, including Westridge, Raja Akram Road, Valley Road and Peshawar Road illegal.

The notices had been issued to all private institutions for shifting the buildings before the end of the year.

Earlier, private school owners had protested against the notices and the Supreme Court, while taking a suo moto notice had barred the cantonment board from taking any action against private schools for three years.

As the apex court’s deadline of December 2021 approaches, the RCB has dispatched final notices to all private institutions to vacate the buildings.

RCB Spokesperson Qaiser Mehmood said that they have served the notices in the light of the top court’s orders.

He said that only one institution on Peshawar Road has purchased a building and moved to a commercial area. However, he said, the rest of the private schools were still operational in residential areas.

The spokesperson said that private schools established on leased and non-leased properties in residential areas would be razed to the ground after the expiry of the deadline.

He said that private schools in residential areas have compromised environment, security and traffic flow.

Earlier, All Private Schools Management Association member Abrar Ahmad Khan had told The Express Tribune that the private educational institutions had been facing a lot of difficulties for the last two years because of the coronavirus pandemic.

He had said that only three of 42 cantonment boards in the country had been built with proper planning with separate residential, commercial and other zones.

All other cantonments were built after the buildings had been already constructed there, he had said, adding where the schools would be relocated in the absence of availability of buildings in commercial areas.

He had said that a review petition was still pending in the Supreme Court and they would take up the matter in the court to adjudicate the matter, keeping the ground realities in view.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2021.