PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court has temporarily stopped the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government from implementing its decision to outsource more than 1,500 ‘under enrolled’ and low performing schools and colleges across the province.

A bench consisting of Justice Mohammad Naeem Anwar and Justice Kamran Hayat Khan Miankhel has issued notices to KP chief secretary, its advocate general, secretary of elementary and secondary education and chairmen of all the boards of intermediate and secondary education (BISEs), asking them to submit their comments in a petition seeking multiple reliefs from the court including declaring the government’s move to outsource educational institutions as illegal and unconstitutional.

The bench fixed Oct 29 for next hearing of the petition, ordering that till then operation of the impugned notification of outsourcing educational institutions should remain suspended.

The petition has been filed by a resident of Peshawar, Mohammad Mehtab. He has sought directives of the high court for respondents including the provincial government to provide free, compulsory, quality and modern education to all children and improve quality and structure of education system in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Petitioner claims the decision will affect children in large numbers

He has prayed the court to declare as illegal and unconstitutional the impugned orders, notifications and policies about outsourcing/privatisation of schools and colleges in the province.

The petitioner has also requested the high court to issue directives to government for producing all the impugned orders, notifications and policies it has issued after its decision of outsourcing these institutions.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in its cabinet meeting on Oct 2 decided to outsource selected schools and colleges having low student enrolment.

The provincial government claims that the decision is meant to enhance enrolment in schools and colleges and improve quality of education.

It says that after outsourcing of selected schools and colleges, jobs of existing teachers will not be affected; education in these institutions will remain free, with all costs to be borne by the provincial government.

Advocate Mohammad Hamdan appeared for the petitioner and contended that Article 25-A of the Constitution of Pakistan mandated that the state should provide free and compulsory education to all children from five to 16 years of age in such a manner as determined by law.

He stated that there were vast majority of children, both boys and girls, particularly from marginalised communities who had not been enrolled in schools.

He claimed that impugned notifications were sequel to decisions made during different meetings held in the month of August 2025 with the chief secretary on outsourcing of low performing schools.

The counsel stated that the recent shocking results of government colleges in the intermediate examinations by relevant BISEs in the province reflected malafide neglect by respondents showing deliberate weakening of public sector educational institutions to justify their outsourcing.

He said that the decision of the provincial government would badly affect hundreds of thousands of children, who would be deprived of basic education.

Mr Hamdan argued that lack of access to quality education deprived children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of their fundamental right to education, hindering their personal and socio-economic development.

The counsel argued that government-run institutions couldn’t be outsourced or privatised through an executive decision without any legislation.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2025