ISLAMABAD, Jan 14: The Ministry of Capital Administration and Development (CAD) could not decide whether to prolong the holiday in educational institutions to Tuesday.

Because of the expected arrival of the long march, the local administration had announced a holiday in all schools on Monday.

But as the participants reached the capital on Monday night and were to stage a sit-in at D. Chowk, the officials in the ministry wanted to keep the schools closed on Tuesday too.

However, they could not get the decision approved from Federal Minister CAD Nazar Mohammad Gondal due to the suspension of mobile phone service.

According to sources, there were two proposals. One was that only educational institutions located in sector G-6, F-6 and adjacent areas should be closed.

The second proposal sought holiday in all schools of the city for the security and safety of the students.

An officer in the CAD ministry requesting not to be identified told Dawn: “Almost all police personnel have been deputed on the long march security duty and checkposts and pickets in the city are vacant for the last two days. On the other hand, thousands of people from other parts of the country have converged on Islamabad. It will not be safe to send students to schools without proper security measures.”

When contacted, Secretary CAD Rifat Shaheen Qazi confirmed that the decision on declaring a holiday on Tuesday could not be taken because the minister was unavailable.

“I was trying to contact the minister on his cellphone but he could not be approached,” she said.

However, most of the private schools have informed their students and parents that they would remain closed on Tuesday.