ISLAMABAD: Like in the past, this time too as many as 1,000 police officials, who came from Azad Kashmir, are being kept in two educational institutions for girls.

They were called to quell protests by the workers of Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) who had gathered in Islamabad to receive their leader Dr Tahirul Qadri.

An official of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) on the condition of anonymity told Dawn that whenever police officials stayed in the educational institutions they not only broke the wooden furniture but also drew unethical pictures and wrote foul remarks on the walls.

When they leave, not only the schools give a look of garbage dumping site but sewerage lines also get choked, he said.

Police officials break wooden chairs/tables to use them as firewood. In January 2013 when Dr Qadri held a sit-in in Islamabad, policemen burned school furniture to keep themselves warm and prepare food, he said.

Previously, they not only destroyed furniture, but their buildings as well

On Friday, City Magistrate Murtaza Chandio informed the FDE that he needed schools because police officials had to be accommodated there. The FDE management tried to resist but the magistrate did not budge and said being a magistrate he had the right to break the locks of the building, the official said.

The magistrate then went to the Islamabad Model College for Girls, G-6/1-4, and the Islamabad Model School for Girls, G-6/1-3, and asked the watchmen to hand over the keys, he added.

The official said the FDE director administration, Ashraf Nadeem, and the director schools, Asif Iqbal, had a meeting with the magistrate and tried to convince him not to use the school buildings but to no avail.

“We had to stop a teacher training programme going on at G-6/1-3 school because the policemen had shifted to the building,” he said.

“We don’t have funds to do the repair work as police officials break everything from flower pots to furniture,” he added.

During a visit to the Islamabad Model College for Girls G-6/1-4, this reporter found buses of the AJK police parked outside and officials occupying the rooms of both ground and first floor and a hall of the school.

The building was full of mud as officials moved there along with muddy boots. Some officials were bathing at the place from where students drink water while others were washing clothes and spreading them on the walls.

A senior police official of the AJK police, who came from Muzaffarabad, on the condition of anonymity, said they had been coming to the federal capital since 1994 when they stopped a long march by Jamaat-i-Islami all alone as all police officials from other provinces had run away.

“The officials have come here from Muzaffarabad, Kotli, Bhimber and Mirpur. We will stay in the school until we are asked to go back,” he said.

When contacted, Director Administration FDE Ashraf Nadeem said two schools had been handed over to the district administration for accommodating the police.

“I will visit the educational institutions as soon as police leave the premises and start the repair work,” he said.

City Magistrate Murtaza Chandio while talking to Dawn confirmed that the FDE management had refused to give the school for the use of residential purposes.

“I was not demanding building for my own use. Schools are government property and they can be used for any government job. There is summer vacation so their (policemen) stay will not affect the education activities,” he said.

In reply to a question, Mr Chandio said he had instructed the police officials not to damage anything in the schools.

“Police officials are specially instructed not to write anything on the walls,” he added.

Published in Dawn, June 24th , 2014