Police and govt departments refuse to budge from schools for children with learning disabilities

The encroachers have been given several notices.

KARACHI: A number of education centres established for children with learning disabilities have been occupied by various government departments and law enforcement agencies, who have converted them into offices or given them to the officials for residential purposes.

The adviser to the Sindh chief minister on special education, Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh, told The Express Tribune that the special education department is in the process of allocating funds for the renovation of each centre. But in order to do this, the department needs to get the encroachers to vacate the buildings. “My first priority since taking charge of this department has been taking possession of these structures,” said Shaikh. “I request all those who are in a position to help us to do whatever they can.”

Shaikh said that he had written letters to former Home Minister Manzoor Wasan and director general of the Sindh Rangers, but nothing was done about the situation. “The attitude of the law enforcers is inhumane. The children have protested many times to get their hostel and classrooms back but their voices seem to have fallen on deaf ears.”

About 2,400 children with learning disabilities are enrolled in 48 centres within the province. Out of these, 400 study in the four institutions established in Karachi.

Back in 1996, an education complex for children with learning disabilities was opened in Gulistan-e-Jauhar. However, the hostels that was built along with it was taken over by the Pakistan Baitulmal. “I called the managing director of the Pakistan Baitul Mal, Zamarud Khan, and asked him to vacate the complex,” said Sheikh. “The institution can easily relocate but its officials are just not willing to listen.”

The educational complex established for disabled people in Sukkur suffered a similar fate. It was first occupied by the Anti Terrorism Court and later the police established a Regional Police Office (RPO) there. Though the post of RPO has been dissolved after the revival of Police Act 1861, the complex still remained under control of police.

“After many formal requests, three blocks of the complex have been evacuated while one other is still under the control of the police,” said Syed Muhammad Ali Shah, the secretary of special education department. He said that around 30 rooms of the complex were being utilised by the police. A senior official from the Rangers had even turned the principal’s office into his living space. Shah said that the principal of the complex had no other option but to move into a rented house. “Around 200 students are enrolled in the centre and it is very difficult for us to continue educational activities in the presence of police and Rangers inside the buildings,” he said.

Another institution located in Jacobabad has 45 disabled students enrolled in it, but the police has taken possession of the hostel. In Badin, a special education centre has been converted into the office of National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) and in Mirpurkhas, the hostel and some classrooms of a school have been taken over by both the police and paramilitary forces.

The Express Tribune has also learnt that the Sindh government has converted a building previously used as a school for children with learning disabilities into a part of Mehran University campus in Khairpur Mirs. They promised the school’s administration an alternative building, but nothing has been done so far. Another centre of the special education department in Sanghar has been taken over by the National Database and Registration Authority. The hostel of another centre in Mirpurkhas has been converted into a police station while an officer’s bungalow is in possession of a former EDO education despite being posted in Sanghar.

When contacted, the deputy inspector general of the Sindh Police headquarters, Sardar Abdul Majeed Dasti, said that he was not aware of the problem. “We have not received any kind of notice from the special education department,” he said.

The response of the spokesperson of the Sindh Rangers, Major Sibtain Rizvi, was similar. He said that he had no information about whether the paramilitary force had occupied any of the education centres. “All the buildings being used by the Rangers have been provided by the Sindh government,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 8^th, 2012.