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PM Bans Police Use of Islamabad Schools, Frees TeachersPakistan
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has banned police and security personnel from using Islamabad’s federal schools and colleges, and ordered teachers freed from election, census and other non-teaching duties.
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According to the directives, buildings, classrooms and other facilities run by the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) will be used only for educational activities. They cannot be used for police deployment, temporary camps, housing for personnel, detention facilities or other security operations.
The Prime Minister’s Office sent written instructions to the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training after a meeting on Islamabad’s education sector. The ministry then issued a formal office memorandum putting the decisions into effect and communicated them to the Islamabad administration and the police.
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The memorandum has also been sent to the Secretary of the Interior and the Chief Commissioner of Islamabad, so that implementation can be ensured across the relevant departments.
The prime minister also ordered the cancellation of non-teaching responsibilities assigned to teachers, including election duties, census operations and household surveys. The Ministry of Education has directed the authorities concerned to withdraw all such assignments immediately.
Teachers who are already performing non-teaching or administrative duties can have those duties ended at once, so that they can return to their primary responsibility of teaching, according to the directives.
The decision follows the closure of 38 public-sector schools and colleges in Islamabad for one to three weeks in September, when their buildings were used to accommodate police personnel ahead of an anticipated protest by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, according to TechJuice.
Officials said the move is intended to protect teaching time and keep educational institutions focused on learning, rather than being diverted for security or administrative use. The federal education ministry will monitor compliance with the memorandum, and institutions have been told that their premises are to remain available only for academic purposes.
The directives apply to schools and colleges under the Federal Directorate of Education in the Islamabad Capital Territory. Teachers’ organisations have long sought relief from duties outside the classroom, arguing that election, census and survey work takes teachers away from students for weeks at a time.
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