PM bans housing police in Islamabad schools, frees teachers from extra duties

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has banned the use of Islamabad's public schools and colleges to accommodate police and security personnel during law and order situations, and directed that teachers be assigned no duties other than teaching.

The orders were issued at a meeting on the federal capital's education sector. According to Dawn, which cited a source, the prime minister said schools were meant to impart education and teachers were responsible for teaching students, so there was no justification for using school buildings to house police.

"School premises and buildings shall not be occupied by law enforcement agencies for any purpose," thecurrent.pk quoted him as saying at the meeting.

After the meeting, the Prime Minister's Office sent written instructions to the Ministry of Education, thecurrent.pk reported. The ministry then wrote to the chief commissioner Islamabad, the Capital Development Authority chairman, the inspector general of police, the interior secretary and the director general of the Federal Directorate of Education.

The ministry's letter said no premises, buildings, classrooms or other facilities of FDE schools and colleges should be occupied, used or handed over to law enforcement agencies. It covered temporary campuses, the deployment of personnel, detention facilities and other operational activity, and told authorities to withdraw immediately any such arrangement already in place.

The same letter barred administrative work for teachers, including election duties, census activities and household surveys, and asked officials to relieve them of assignments already given.

The decisions follow the closure of 38 public-sector schools and colleges in Islamabad in September, when the institutions were used to accommodate police personnel ahead of a protest march called by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. An FDE official told thecurrent.pk that police began moving into the institutions on September 24, three days before the march was scheduled. The schools reopened after the situation came under control and governor's rule was imposed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, thecurrent.pk reported.

A federal government officer welcomed the prime minister's decision, saying the closure of educational institutions to accommodate police personnel had no justification. The officer said teachers had sought exemption from election, census and other administrative assignments for years, and the prime minister had now accepted that demand.