The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed strong displeasure over the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government’s failure to rebuild schools damaged in the 2005 earthquake and questioned why the rehabilitation work remained incomplete even after two decades.
A five-member larger bench headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan took up the “suo motu” case on the dilapidated state of government schools across the province. The bench also consisted of Justices Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Hasan Azhar Rizvi and others.
The suo motu notice was initiated after reports revealed that hundreds of school buildings in earthquake-hit districts like Mansehra, Battagram and Kohistan remain incomplete, many still functioning in makeshift shelters or tents. Despite budget allocations under several reconstruction programs since 2005, progress has remained painfully slow.
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Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi noted that reconstruction had stalled for years and pointed out that 107 school units in Mansehra and 11 in Kohistan were still incomplete. “It’s been 20 years since the 2005 earthquake,” he noted. “We’re sitting here in 2025 – how much more time do you need”?
“Implementation of Supreme Court directions is in progress,” the Additional Education Minister told the court while seeking another extension, citing logistical delays and harsh weather conditions. “Snowfall in winter affects construction work,” added the KP government adviser.
Justice Mandokhail, visibly irritated by the explanation, remarked, “Even after the 2005 earthquake, the schools have not been completed. It is important to build new schools, but repairing the old ones is equally necessary”.
The bench’s remarks underscored a larger and long-standing problem, namely the chronic neglect of the province’s public education infrastructure.
According to a report from 2021 of Express Pakinomist based on data from the KP Planning and Development Department, nearly 16,000 public schools were in urgent need of attention. About 3,300 lacked border walls, 4,272 had no access to clean drinking water, 5,456 were without electricity and 2,836 had no toilets, including over 800 girls’ schools.
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Education experts warned that such conditions discouraged enrollment and contributed to the province’s estimated 3.8 million children out of school — among the highest in the country.
The additional secretary again asked for three more months to complete ongoing projects, but the bench reminded the provincial government that similar extensions had been granted several times before.
“We gave you time at your own request – now show us progress,” Justice Aminuddin Khan observed, warning that continued negligence would no longer be tolerated. “Our task is not to build schools, but to go through the implementation process,” he clarified.
Justice Mandokhail added: “We are only saying that you must fulfill your responsibility”.
Communities in the quake-hit belt say the delay has taken a heavy toll. In districts like Balakot, where the 2005 earthquake flattened entire towns, students still attend classes in makeshift shelters or in the open. Parents say they are fed up with promises that never translate into classrooms.
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During the hearing, the court gave the KP Education Department another six months to comply with its earlier directives after the provincial government again sought more time to complete the pending reconstruction work. The court ordered the submission of a comprehensive status report within that period, detailing timetables for the completion of all remaining school projects.
The bench noted that the matter would be taken up again once the compliance report is submitted – a reminder that two decades after one of Pakistan’s deadliest natural disasters, KP’s children are still waiting for the promise of safe education to be fulfilled.
