Weeks after Dir Colony collapse, Peshawar administration tells 13 private schools to vacate unsafe buildings

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar district administration on Monday declared 13 private school buildings in the city dilapidated and dangerous and issued notices directing their managements to vacate the premises immediately, less than three weeks after a building collapse at a private school killed 34 people.

An inspection team submitted a report identifying structural risks in the buildings, the administration said. The schools have been told to shift students to safe premises without delay to prevent any harm to children. The administration warned that managements would be held responsible for any untoward incident resulting from failure to comply, adding that continuing classes in the unsafe buildings posed a risk to the lives and safety of students.

The Dir Colony collapse

The notices follow the October 15 collapse at Al-Khair Education System in Peshawar’s Dir Colony, where a section of the building came down while classes were under way. The dead included 32 children and two teachers. According to police, around 110 children were present in the two-storey building at the time. The school stood in a congested neighbourhood with narrow streets, which made rescue work difficult.

Police said the roof of a second-floor nursery classroom collapsed, bringing down the room beneath it. Capital City Police Officer Saeed Ahmad said the building appeared to have been overloaded and questioned the use of brick in its lintel, which he said could not bear the weight placed on it. He described the incident as a case of serious negligence and said investigators would examine possible violations of building regulations.

Case against owners

Police registered a case against the school’s owners, shareholders and those involved in its construction, citing complaints about the poor condition of the walls and roofs. The FIR alleged that the owners had failed to address those complaints. The school was run by a welfare trust, Al-Khair, and police have detained its owner and principal.

Officials said they would examine whether the institution had obtained the required no-objection certificate (NOC), secured permission to operate and undergone mandatory safety inspections.

Province-wide audit ordered

After the collapse, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Governor Faisal Karim Kundi ordered a province-wide structural safety audit of educational institutions to identify dangerous buildings and ensure corrective measures. President Asif Ali Zardari also called for a comprehensive investigation and stressed that schools must meet safety standards to prevent similar incidents.

Government schools also at risk

The concern is not limited to private institutions. More than 36,000 classrooms in government schools across KP have been declared dilapidated, according to official sources, with 19,224 requiring reconstruction and another 17,743 needing repairs. The sources said no government-level measures had been taken to address the deteriorating facilities.

KP has 34,784 government schools and 11,542 registered private schools, according to official figures.

Unregistered schools

Thousands of unregistered private schools are reportedly operating in the province, but the Private Schools Regulatory Authority (PSRA) has no data on them. Officials said standard operating procedures were not being implemented at these institutions. The authority said it acted against unregistered schools when complaints were received.

Other school accidents this year

The Peshawar collapse was among several deadly structural failures at educational institutions in Pakistan in 2026. On February 21, a shed at an under-construction government girls’ high school in Sialkot fell, killing an eighth-grade student. On May 7, four students died when a classroom roof collapsed at a private school in Dera Ghazi Khan.