ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court rejected a report furnished by the nationwide cantonment boards in a case pertaining to the closure of private schools and colleges in their jurisdictions.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice Ijaz ul-Ahsan took the petition against the closure of schools. At the outset of the hearing, the counsel of the boards presented a report regarding the shifting of private schools operating in the cantonment premises.
The bench rejected the report and sought a fresh one in its place.
Justice Munib Akhtar said all the advertisements added in the report are for 2021. “Where are the public notices advertised in 2019 and 2020?” he questioned.
Record is available for the said period but for the convenience of the court, only those advertisements which were released in 2021 are made part of the report, the counsel replied.
Later, the court adjourned the hearing for four weeks.
In 2018, the Supreme Court bench headed by then-chief justice Saqib Nisar ordered the removal of all the private education institutions operating in cantonment boards’ residential areas by December 31, 2021.
The cantonment boards started sealing the schools in the residential neighbourhoods in December and issued the final notices to private educational institutions to vacate the residential neighbourhoods.
However, owners of schools, teachers, parents and students staged protests in the cantonment boards against the sealing.
Upon this, the private schools and college association moved to the Supreme Court and filed a review petition before it.
Counsel for private education institutions informed the court that more than 3.7 million children were enrolled in the 8,300 private schools located within the limits of the 42 cantonment boards nationwide and closure of schools would affect their education.
