APPSA to set up protest camp in capital

The All Pakistan Private Schools and Colleges Association (APPSA) has announced that they will set up a permanent protest camp outside the National Press Club in Islamabad.

The decision is meant to oppose the December 31 deadline to evict several schools in four cantonment areas.

The protest camp will continue until the demands are approved, and the decision is withdrawn. APPSA President Malik Abrar Hussain said that the decision to set up a camp is being taken under duress. He added that they were not being given their rights and the agencies concerned had not paid any heed to their demands.

He said that there were more than 15,000 private educational institutions in the cantt areas, according to a survey. 3.7 million students were studying at the institutes, he said. “The expulsion decision will deprive these children of schools,” he added. Among them, around 0.2 million individuals, who provide teaching and non-teaching services, would be unemployed, he said. “The investment in buildings and infrastructure, built by the school owners at a cost of billions of rupees, will sink,” he added.

He said that the protest camp would be visited by officials of the association from across the country, along with delegations from other educational organisations, lawyers, civil society, members of parliament, and journalists

Published in The Express Tribune, December 30^th, 2021.