Langlands School's controversy simmers

Parents, teachers, traders, lawyers, doctors and all the 84 staff of the Langlands School and College Chitral on Friday asked the federal government to immediately renew the visa of Principal Carey Schofield - a British educationist - so that she can come back to the school.
In a petition signed by all the staff, parents and people belonging to different walks of life, they called upon Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take notice of barring Carey Schofield from returning to Pakistan without any reason. They also demanded of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to punish those behind the controversy and their alleged involvement in misguiding him by getting the signature of a 97-year-old man.
Talking to this correspondent over phone from Chitral, some of the 173 petitioners said they had only one demand: "Bring Carey Schofield back or else even an angel other than her will not be accepted as the principal of the school". Abdul Wali Khan Advocate said the people of Chitral wanted nothing from the government except saving the future of their children, which he stated, was linked with the return of Carey Schofield.
"We will not accept anybody as principal of the school except Carey Schofield, as she is an excellent administrator and has put the institution on the right track which had lost its glory as some vested interests exploited the old man - Major Langlands," he opined.
"There was no administration. No education. It's only Carey who turned the school into an institution. And I'm dead sure if she remained the principal for another three years, the school is certainly going to become one of the best schools of South Asia," he maintained.
To a question about Abdullah, the sacked vice-principal, he said he had no capacity to run such an institution, adding he had already advised him to run some transportation or some other business, saying that heading an educational institution was beyond his capabilities. Abdul Wali demanded of the government to immediately issue a visa to Carey Schofield, besides ordering a through probe into allegations of misleading the interior minister. He said that the school should also be renamed as Sayurj Public School.
Dr Gulzar Ahmed, one of the petitioners, said Carey had injected new blood into the school. Before Carey took over as principal in 2013, he added, the school had completely turned into a ghost institution. Kaneez Fatima, a parent-cum-teacher literally cried, saying she had to return to Chitral from Islamabad along with her children after the sad demise of her husband, and it was troubling when she found not a single quality school in Chitral to enroll her children.
She recalled that when Carey arrived, it was no less than a blessing as she completely changed the complexion of the institution. "I'm 100 percent satisfied with the performance of my children [and] our only demand is to save the future of our children which is only possible if Carey is back," she declared. Shabana, who is also a parent-cum-teacher, said that there existed no discipline at all in the school before Carey took the charge. The boys used to smoke cigarettes, and no one was there to keep a check on them [and] we witnessed a completely changed institution with arrival of Carey," she added.
Wali Muhammad Khan comes from the mountains of Laspur, and works with an NGO in the town. He said all his three children were studying in the school, adding that we'd made it crystal clear to the deputy commissioner that any attempt to keep Carey out would have serious repercussions.
He claimed that the deputy commissioner had assured them that Abdullah and Co if made any attempt to go to the school, the district prison of Denin would be awaiting them as they were sacked and had nothing to do with the school. Rizwan Ali Roomi from Morder village said there were 15 children from his family in the school and the only reason his family preferred the school was because there was a Cambridge-qualified woman at the helm of affairs.
When contacted, Abdullah, the sacked vice-principal said it was Major Langlands and he who made it an institution of high repute. "Who is Carey and what she knows about education...," he continued non-stop. But when he was reminded, "What are your credentials if a Cambridge-qualified lady doesn't know anything about education...," he stopped and said he was going to offer prayers and call you back. But till the evening, he did not return the call. When this correspondent called him again, his mobile phone was found switched off.