KARACHI, Jan 22: Following the city education department move to hand over a school in Firdous Colony to an individual, students were not allowed to enter the school premises on Monday morning.

When students reached the school, they were astonished to see that labourers were at work to demolish the building while banners were displayed informing the students about shifting of their school premises to other location.

The Sindh Education Department had issued a notification about transferring morning shift students of the Federal English Boys Secondary School to the Government Boys Secondary School in Firdous Colony and the afternoon shift to the Bano Government Boys Secondary School in Firdous Colony.

City Nazim Mustafa Kamal had stated on Sunday that the education department acted on court order. However, the education department failed to produce court order about handing over the school building and its premises to an individual.

Executive District Officer Education Ms Fakhar Karim could not be reached despite repeated attempts for comment.

On Monday morning when students reached their school, they found the main gate locked and security guards of a private company deployed while the demolition work was going on. Though banners were there to inform the students about the shifting, majority of students and their parents failed to locate the new premises.

The officials in the education department on condition of anonymity expressed their ignorance about the court order about the school premises. They said the plot of the school was actually allotted to Irshad Waheed in 1952, whose name was on the papers.

Following his death, the owner had been changed and the plot was transferred to Abdul Qadir, son of Haji Usman, in 2000. “Only the relevant authorities can say how this transpired,” they added.

As the piece of land, where the school building was located, had become the prime location and a multi-storyed commercial edifice was likely to be constructed on the land. The sources expressed their surprise over ‘rapid action’ to vacate the building in spite of the notice taken by the NAB authorities.

The National Accountability Bureau taking notice of media reports about the swift action to get the school building vacated had asked the education department to furnish the details of the school restored to the private sector over the past six years.