Lahore police have registered an FIR against the owners of a private tuition centre and the contractor after a roof collapse in Kahna claimed the lives of 14 children. The case has been registered under PPC sections 322 and 337-H, dealing with manslaughter and hurt by rash or negligent act. According to the FIR, the centre was being run inside a house whose roof was already in a dilapidated condition. More than 30 children were said to be inside the premises at the time.
This should not be treated as an accident in the ordinary sense. Roof and building collapses are common across the country, often because of poor safety standards, weak enforcement and substandard construction materials. Last July, a five-storey building collapse in Karachi reportedly killed 27 people, underscoring how entrenched this pattern has become. The deaths in Kahna are therefore not only a matter of private negligence.
Who knew that a tuition centre was operating from this building? Was the structure inspected? Were alterations approved? The FIR may name the immediate suspects, but a classroom does not simply emerge in an unsafe structure without the silent acquiescence of multiple regulators.
The deeper tragedy is that the tuition centre has become an indispensable institution in Pakistan’s education economy while remaining largely invisible in its regulatory architecture. Families turn to private coaching because public education has failed to meet expectations and competitive examinations have transformed learning into a parallel marketplace. Yet thousands of academies continue to operate from converted homes and commercial buildings that were never designed to accommodate dozens of children. The state has quietly accepted this parallel system without assuming responsibility for making it safe. Pakistan has become too accustomed to post-disaster governance. After every collapse come arrests, compensation announcements, inquiry committees and stern official statements. What rarely follows is a preventive regime. The provincial government has reportedly ordered inspections of unsafe buildings and promised stricter regulation of unregistered educational facilities as the monsoon approaches. That is necessary, but it must not become another short campaign that fades once public anger recedes.
Accountability must therefore move in two directions. The owners and contractors should face due process if negligence is established. At the same time, municipal, building-control and education authorities must be required to explain how such premises remained in use. Punjab also needs a province-wide audit of tuition centres, schools, daycare facilities and buildings undergoing renovation while occupied. *