Symbolic imagePakistan orders school inspections after Peshawar roof collapse
Pakistan has ordered safety checks of schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after a classroom roof collapsed in Peshawar on Thursday. The New York Times counts 32 children and a teacher dead, Al Jazeera at least 34 children and a teacher.
The collapse happened at the Al-Khair school on Thursday, 15 October. According to Al Jazeera, citing the Associated Press, the province's education department has three days to report its findings. Schools are to be classified as safe, in need of repairs or improvements, or potentially unsafe, with roofs, ceilings, walls and staircases assessed. Reports conflict on whether the checks cover public and private schools or only private ones.
Owner arrested, families cite warnings
Police arrested the school's owner, Mohammad Khan, shortly after the mud and brick roof came down. Peshawar Police Chief Saeed Ahmed said the building was structurally weak and that Khan told officers recent rains had weakened it. Relatives say they had repeatedly warned Khan about rainwater seeping into classrooms, and they demand justice.
Part of a wider pattern
Al Jazeera notes that Pakistan's construction standards are widely reported to be poor. In June, the roof of a private tutoring centre in Lahore collapsed and killed 14 people.