ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court of Pakistan Wednesday granted stay against the eviction of private educational institutions from the cantonment areas and issued notices to the cantonment boards’ heads with the direction to submit their response. A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan conduced hearing of the review petitions regarding removing of private educational and commercial institutions from cantonments areas. During the hearing, the counsel for the private schools/colleges argued that 3.7 million students in 8, 300 schools in the cantonments were enrolled. Representing the students’ parents in the case, Hamid Khan Advocate said, the real bone of contention was building schools on residential plots. The court then adjourned the hearing of the case for an indefinite time period. A Supreme Court bench headed by former chief justice Saqib Nisar in December 2018 had ordered the removal of all the private schools working in cantonment boards’ areas by December 31, 2021. In light of the Supreme Court order, the administration of the cantonment boards had served the evacuation notices to the private educational institutions, directing private schools to shift their establishments from residential areas by December 30, 2021.
The deadline for the red notices issued to 8,430 private schools in 42 cantonment boards across the country. The Cantonment boards’ authorities, after this date had started sealing the private institutions in the Cantt areas.
Teaching and non-teaching staff and school owners on Wednesday protested at the Constitutional Avenue against the evacuation of private schools from Cantonment areas without being provided with an alternative space.