The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) on Monday resumed its operation against private schools and colleges situated in residential areas of the city.
The civic body had sealed 12 schools and 27 shops in different areas of Rawalpindi cantonment before temporarily halting the operation on the weekend.
According to a senior RCB official, more educational institutions and commercial entities will be sealed as the board resumes the crackdown on Monday.
He said that special teams have been given a list of educational institutions to be sealed in the cantonment area.
The official noted that the RCB had sent final eviction notices to 469 private schools and colleges as well as 2,880 commercial outlets functioning in residential areas of the cantonment before taking action.
He said that a delegation of owners of private schools met RCB officials and requested them to stop the action, saying that they had filed a review petition with the Supreme Court.
“However, the owners failed to produce a stay order, therefore, the cantonment board will go ahead with the operation,” the official said.
He said that the owners misinterpreted the court’s decision which gave clear orders to shift schools from residential areas to commercial areas.
Meanwhile, RCB spokesman, Qaiser Mehmood, told Dawn that the action against commercial activities in residential areas had been started on the directives of the Supreme Court.
“We will not allow any school or college as well as shops and plazas to operate in residential areas,” he said, adding that school owners had been informed that the civic body would not violate the court’s orders.
In 2018, the cantonment board had declared private schools in residential areas of Westridge, Raja Akram Road, Valley Road, Peshawar Road, etc. illegal, and notices had been issued to all establishments to move buildings to commercial areas.
The school owners had approached the Supreme Court against the move and acquired a stay order. The top court had given three years to private educational institutions to relocate their establishments out of residential areas and had board RCB from taking any action against these schools in the meantime. The deadline is ending in the next ten days.
I am living in PWD society and in my street there are 4 School and very messed up no one is listening, if any one responsible looking in it I will b grateful