KP govt trying to absolve itself of responsibility to protect citizens

PESHAWAR: Instead of de-weaponising the society and performing their duty of protecting the people, the provincial government and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police have decided to allow teachers to keep arms ignoring the fact that the move would have serious repercussions vis-à-vis the millions of students across the province.
Once there were campaigns to stop teachers from carrying a stick for corporal punishment as it has a negative impact on students. Today schools have been ‘militarised’ by allowing staff to carry guns for countering terrorist attacks. The lame excuse is that the government lacks policemen and facilities to protect all the schools in the province.
The KP government and its police are already aiming to shift responsibility of security on the public. For the purpose, the KP Security of Sensitive and Vulnerable Establishments and Places Act 2015 has already been passed from the provincial assembly and sent to Governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan for approval.
Under the new law, not only owners of schools but other private offices, markets and shops will be punished (up to one year imprisonment) and fined for not arranging security. There are no such laws in any other province in the country.
“There must be books, not guns in schools. Learning institutions should not be turned into sub-jails. Pakhtunkhwa and Fata have yet to recover from the Kalashnikov culture introduced during General Zia’s rule and now the government is arming the professionals,” commented Bushra Gohar, a former lawmaker and senior civil society activist. She opined that the government seems clueless about handling the critical security challenges. “The present outrageous abdication policy will have serious negative social consequences and legal implications. Needless to say that carrying of arms by the teachers in schools will affect students psychologically. Instead of shifting responsibility of security on the public, the government must strengthen intelligence and civil defence,” Bushra Gohar told The News.
Even the coalition partners in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government do not agree with the policy. “Providing security to the schools and general public is the responsibility of the government. If the government is short of policemen, more cops must be recruited on emergency basis,” said the Jamaat-i-Islami head Sirajul Haq while visiting the Army Public School and College, where more than 150 persons, mostly schoolchildren were killed in the terrorist attack onDecember 16 last year.
Pictures have been shared on the social media with teachers of schools, colleges and universities displaying pistols and automatic rifles in their institutions after they were allowed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to keep guns for security purpose.
KP Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani recently told newsmen that private schools would hire at least three guards for buildings and two each for buses. Hundreds of buses and vans, however, are transporting children from and to schools without any guard, causing serious threat to the lives of innocent children.
“The government should protect education. Schools should be given guards or at least weapons. The city police chief had promised to give us licences for any kind of weapon but the cops have stepped back, saying only three-month permits for 12-bore rifles would be issued to schools,” said Zarullah Khan, general secretary of the All Pakistan Private Schools Association formed by local principals after the December 16attack.
The association had staged protest in Peshawar and is scheduled to hold a meeting on Tuesday. “The policemen are visiting schools and have insulted principles in many areas. They publicly abuse principals for not arranging what police are supposed to provide us,” Zarullah, who is principal of the Ankara Model School in Bahadur Killay, told The News.
Many schools have already scaled up their boundary walls, recruited more guards and constructed pickets at their entrances. However, majority of the small private and public sector schools are unable to recruit guards and make other arrangements due to lack of finances. The watchmen or peons were given weapons and this has already resulted in ugly incidents.
In Mansehra, four female students were wounded when the guard mistakenly opened fire in the school ground. The guard was arrested and the students were shifted to the hospital. In Swabi district, there were reports about gunmen riding a motorbike opening fire near a girls’ school in Chota Lahor. Later, the guard also fired shots in the air.
The police, however, could not find any evidence of people coming and firing shots. The cops believe the guard mistakenly fired shots and later tried to give an impression that he had repulsed an attack.
“I reached the spot immediately and interviewed people working in the fields as well as other people present there. But all of them told us that they did not see anyone coming or escaping from the area,” District Police Officer Swabi, Sajjad Khan told The News.
After directives by the police, all the boards of intermediate and secondary education in the province have sent letters to the private schools seeking details of the security measures they have taken.
The letters sent to the schools asked the management to furnish details of the number of entry and exit points, barriers, pickets, number of security guards at the gate and the rear of the school, the type and condition of weapons in possession of guards, metal detectors, walkthrough gates, sniffer dogs, alarm system, the number of vendors and garbage dumps and the security of buses and vans.
There are still threats to schools and other public places. A private school in Peshawar was closed last week after such threats and the authorities said it would reopen after arranging adequate security.