Ebrahim Ali Bhai Boys Secondary School has been vacated from the contractor after the intervention of the provincial Ombudsman Sindh, and classes restarted on Wednesday.
Provincial Ombudsman Sindh Ajaz Ali Khan has ordered Suo-Moto action on a news item posted in a local English newspaper dated 12-01-2023 regarding "School building rented out to tenants".
During the hearings, it was discovered that Ebrahim Ali Bhai Boys Secondary School was completed in 2016, but the School Education Department neglected to take over the school building despite a six-year lag, leaving pupils without such a large educational facility.
It has also been revealed that the contractor illegally occupied the facility and conducted his private business on school grounds, allowing his private chowkidars to live with their families in school halls designated for labs.
Furthermore, the alleged contractor illegally occupied three rooms of the Boys Secondary School that was operating on the property.
Owing to such illegal occupancy, the primary school operating inside the boundaries of Ebrahim Ali Bhai Boys Secondary School was not operating at full capacity due to a lack of enrollment in classes IV and V.
During the hearing, the Director of School Education (ES&HS) Karachi and the Superintending Engineer Education Works were directed to clarify the reasons for not taking over the building, despite the fact that it had been completed six years prior; as a result, the department awoke from its deep slumber and vacated the school building from the contractor and resumed regular classes.