The ghost of nationalisation

Far from being educational centre of Anarkali area, under govt control it has become a self haemorrhaging institution.

On June 15, 2014, in the sweltering heat of Lahore, thousands of Christians marched from Lahore Press Club to the Governor’s House in a peaceful protest. They were demanding the denationalisation of St Francis High School in the Anarkali area of Lahore, which after repeated protests has yet to be given back to its owners.

More than a decade after most schools — Christian and others — which had been nationalised by Zulifkar Ali Bhutto in 1972, were given back, it is a disgrace that this one institution has yet to be given back. In a number of ways, the current condition of St Francis High School is a textbook case of the failed policy of nationalisation, just as the college I currently work in was till it got denationalised just over a decade ago. When St Francis High School was taken over by the government in 1972, it was arguably one of the best Urdu-medium schools in the city. With its low fees and trained teachers, it had an enrollment of over a thousand pupils. St Francis was also significant since it was the first Catholic school in Lahore and was established shortly after the Catholic mission reached Lahore in the middle of the 19^th century. Its placement in the Anarkali area, then and now a major commercial centre, meant that its catchment were mainly the children of the working class neighbourhoods, which had begun to emerge in the vicinity around that time. Therefore, for over a century, the school provided the best source of education for the mainly non-Christian population of the area, which was variously Hindu, Muslim and Sikh.

Today, St Francis High School is a mere ghost of its former self. Its student population is a mere few hundred, the main buildings’ ceiling has fallen in and its grounds — once full of trees and life — give a desolate look. These days few teachers make it to the school and fewer student even bother to turn up. Far from being the educational centre of the Anarkali area, under government control it has become a self haemorrhaging institution.

When I sat down with the parish priest of the area, Fr Andrew Nisari, a few months ago, I learnt that the school’s location is, in fact, its bane now. Where previously the location of the school meant that it was close to working class areas, now its setting in a commercial area is mainly preventing its return. Fr Andrew noted that it has now been over a decade that the Catholic Church fulfilled all the requirements set by the government for the return of the school and even deposited millions of rupees as teacher salaries, etc, but that, to date, the return of the school remains a distant dream. Fr Andrew surmised that the main reason for the delay is that there is a land mafia which wants to encroach upon the property and that is why the school was not being given back. Fr Andrew wondered if elements in the government might be involved with the land mafia, because even after the assurance of the prime minister of Pakistan, Mian Nawaz Sharif, in December 2013, there has been no movement.

It is, indeed, lamentable that the matter of St Francis High School still hangs on. I was told yesterday that even after the protest, no one from the government met the Church leaders and no clear assurances were given as to when the school will be returned. Over a century ago, St Francis School was established by missionaries who had come half way across the world from Europe to work in the extreme conditions of the Punjab. Their aim was to help the children of the region — mainly poor and underprivileged — get educated so that they could create an honourable life for themselves. It is a pity that in Pakistan today, when both our prime minister and the Punjab chief minister have been taught so well at Catholic institutions, a sister Catholic institution is dying and nothing is being done. I just hope that the labours of those missionaries more than a century ago were not in vain.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2014.

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