Closed institutions

The Peshawar High Court (PHC), in response to a petition filed by residents of University Town, has ordered the immediate closure of several private hospitals and schools set up within the locality. The PHC order is being implemented in such a way that patients were discharged prematurely, and school-going children were stopped by the police from entering their school gates. Why can’t the PHC realise that the brunt of previously exercised improper town planning and of misplaced permissions to open such private organisations is falling on the innocent.

Could the court not ask the KP government to submit a plan for phasing out these organisations from University Town, instead of debarring hundreds and thousands of citizens from these services? Are courts and the police supposed to stop citizens from getting education and healthcare services or are they supposed to be facilitators for making access to these services more convenient?

Marghuz Khan

Peshawar