In court: School in session despite demolition orders

SHC summons education dept, building control officials

KARACHI: Two government primary schools in Model Colony are still holding classes despite demolition orders.

“It is really shocking to note that the children are still studying in that building,” remarked Sindh High Court (SHC) Justice Maqbool Baqir, while hearing a petition seeking repairs of the two schools.

Syed Muhammad Hussain, the co-owner of the land where Arman Secondary Government Girls School and Saifee Government Primary Boys School are established, took the repairs issue to court in 2008. Hundreds of boys and girls study in both these schools set up by the government on plot no. 5/14, scheme 5 in 1970. “No maintenance was carried out for decades. Since denationalisation, the schools are now run by the local government, which failed to carry out the repairs for several years,” he said.

He sent several applications to the provincial education secretary, education EDO in the then city government, the town nazim and Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA) but to no avail. In the meantime, the roof of one of the classrooms also caved in and injured many students.

However, the KBCA did not get the buildings vacated, violating the Sindh Buildings Control Ordinance, 1979. The petitioner pleaded the court to direct the local government and buildings regulatory authority to demolish the dangerous buildings.



On April 7, 2011, the Sindh High Court had ordered an inspection of the school buildings by a relevant committee. The then city government and buildings regulatory agency were also directed to get the buildings vacated, if found dangerous, and then demolish them.

Nineteen months later, Sindh Building Control Authority’s lawyer, Rao Sarfaraz, said that the committee had declared the buildings dangerous, but neither failed to explain why it was not demolished.

On Thursday, the SHC summoned the relevant officers of the provincial education department, Sindh Building Control Authority and Karachi Municipal Corporation to come to court personally and explain why they had not demolished the buildings.

The division bench adjourned the hearing till December 13 and directed the government officials to file their detailed reports with photocopies of the relevant documents.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24^th, 2012.