The owners of private schools have rejected the suggestion to shut down educational institutions for over two months from November 24, saying the federal government should consider the option of smart lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Addressing a press conference in Lahore on Friday, Kashif Mirza – who is the president of All Pakistan Private Schools Federation – maintained that the political leaders were responsible for the wave of new coronavirus cases by holding public gatherings.

He was critical of those giving arguments in favour of this proposal and said targeting the private schools was unjustified.

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Similarly, the provincial chapter of All Pakistan Private Schools Federation held a presser in Karachi where Akhtar Arain too rejected the proposal and thanked Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani for opting against winter holidays this year.

This reaction came as one of the options tabled before the federal government is about shutting down schools with effect from November 24 to January 31.

In this connection, a meeting of provincial education ministers to be chaired by Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mehmood will review the situation for future line of action next week on November 23.

The last sitting held on Monday had deferred a decision on early and extended winter holidays for a week.

Ghani has repeated on several occasions that closing the educational institutions isn’t an option given the long break the students already have had after the coronavirus pandemic outbreak and the resultant lockdown.

Meanwhile, according to INP news agency, seven more educational institutions have been sealed after surge in coronavirus cases in Islamabad on Friday.

Three private and four government schools have been closed by the district health officer (DHO) over reporting of COVID-19 cases. The DHO has directed to immediately shut the institutions for 14 days.

On the other hand, Pakistan has reported 36 deaths in the last 24 hours by novel coronavirus as the number of positive cases has surged to 368,665. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 7,561.

According to the latest figures by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), 2,738 persons tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.

Sindh remains the worst-hit province by the pandemic both in terms of cases and casualties followed by Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

Till now 159,752 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 112,893 in Punjab, 43,259 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 16,642 in Balochistan, 25,719 in Islamabad, 5,806 in Azad Kashmir and 4,494 in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Furthermore 2,780 individuals have lost their lives to the epidemic in Sindh, 2,811 in Punjab, 1,319 in KP, 158 in Balochistan, 266 in Islamabad, 134 in Azad Kashmir and 93 in GB.