Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif has barred the Islamabad administration and law enforcement agencies from using public schools and colleges to accommodate police personnel during law and order deployments, while also directing that teachers will no longer perform election, census or other administrative duties, Dawn has reported.
The prime minister issued the directives during a meeting on Islamabad’s education sector, where he maintained that schools must remain dedicated to education and teachers must focus on teaching students rather than performing duties unrelated to their profession.
“School premises and buildings shall not be occupied by law enforcement agencies for any purpose,” Shehbaz said, ruling out the use of educational institutions to manage law and order situations.
Following the meeting, the Prime Minister’s Office sent written instructions to the Ministry of Education, directing it to ensure that educational institutions did not serve purposes unrelated to education.
On Wednesday, the education ministry communicated the decisions to the Islamabad district administration and police through a letter addressed to the chief commissioner Islamabad, Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman, inspector general of police, secretary interior and director general of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE).
The ministry directed that no premises, buildings, classrooms or other facilities of schools and colleges under the FDE should be occupied, used or handed over to law enforcement agencies. The restriction also covered temporary campuses, deployment of personnel, detention facilities and other operational activities.
The prime minister also directed that schoolteachers will not be assigned administrative responsibilities, including election duties, census activities and household surveys.
The ministry’s letter further instructed authorities to immediately withdraw any such duties already assigned to teachers in accordance with the directive.
The decisions followed the closure of 38 public-sector schools and colleges in Islamabad in September, when authorities used the institutions to accommodate police personnel ahead of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) anticipated protest march.
An FDE official said that the government began shifting police personnel to educational institutions on September 24, three days before the party’s scheduled rally.
Authorities reopened the schools and colleges after the situation came under control and governor’s rule was imposed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
A federal government officer welcomed the prime minister’s decision, saying that the closure of educational institutions to accommodate police personnel had no justification. The officer also stated that the teachers had sought exemption from election, census and other administrative assignments for years, but the prime minister had now accepted their demand.
