Peshawar, Oct 16 Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has ordered district-level inspections of private schools across the province following a roof collapse that killed 34 children and a teacher in Peshawar.
The incident occurred on Thursday at Al-Khair Education System in Dir Colony, where the roof of a nursery classroom on the second floor collapsed over rooms on the lower floors, killing 35 people and injuring 52 others.
All the injured people admitted to Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar were discharged on Friday, according to a hospital spokesperson.
The provincial Elementary and Secondary Education Department on Thursday issued a notification directing district-level committees to inspect private school buildings and submit their findings and recommendations within three days.
The inspections will cover roofs, walls, pillars, beams, foundations, staircases and other structural components. The committees will classify buildings as safe, in need of repairs or potentially unsafe.
The committees will recommend repairs and rehabilitation where structural weaknesses are found. If a building poses an immediate risk, the committees will alert district authorities and recommend suspending its use or restricting access.
Each committee will be headed by the district monitoring officer and include education department officials and a representative of the Communication and Works Department.
After Thursday’s roof collapse, a case was registered on Friday at Agha Mir Jani Shah Police Station under Sections 322, 148 and 149 of the Pakistan Penal Code, according to the First Information Report (FIR).
The FIR names the school’s owners, shareholders and the contractor responsible for constructing the building.
It said the school was built on 16 marlas of land owned by Waheed and Javed, which was leased in 2024 before construction began.
The FIR alleged that substandard construction materials were used and that the school administration had ignored earlier complaints from students about the deteriorating condition of the building’s walls and roofs.
The school owner was arrested on Thursday, while police said efforts were underway to arrest other suspects named in the case.
Separately, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Secretary has formed a two-member inquiry committee to investigate Thursday’s collapse and submit its report within seven days.
The committee will examine the building’s structural integrity, construction quality, safety arrangements and possible negligence. The provincial transport secretary will head it, while Chief Engineer of the Communication and Works Department Jamshed Ali Khan will serve as its member, according to sources.
The provincial government has also announced compensation of PKR 10 lakh (around Rs 3.42 lakh) for the family of each deceased victim and PKR 2 lakh for each injured student.
Building and roof collapses are common in Pakistan and are often attributed to poor safety standards and the use of substandard construction materials.
In July, three girls were killed after part of a government primary school’s outer wall collapsed in Sindh. The same month, a child died when the roof of an under-construction private school in Lahore collapsed.
In June, 14 children were killed in the collapse of a private tuition centre’s roof in Lahore. Less than two months earlier, four children had died, and 20 people were injured when a classroom roof collapsed at a private school in Dera Ghazi Khan district.
(PTI News)
