Islamic School unrecognised,trust unregistered

After a half-hour wait,Iqbal met the DEO and held discussion for an hour.

DEO R I Patel said: “The school is not registered at the primary level,and not even the trust is registered. We can take action only after finding where students take admission after Class VII.”

Patel said the trustee also denied that any such incident as reported in the media occurred in the school.

Later in the day,three former trustees of the school held a meeting with Shahpur Congress MLA Gyasuddin Shaikh to expedite the school registration process and take action against the Iqbal Patel and Rehana

Rasul Khan Kausar,a trustee said there were 11 trustees originally. Three of them died and the remaining were ousted by Iqbal Patel when they questioned the behaviour of Rehana towards the students. He said earlier there were 1,200 students but now the strength has come down to 400.

“The first and the foremost thing we want to do is to get the school registered with the Charity Commissioner and later with the Education Department,” said Khan.

He added: “Out of the eight trustees alive,four have refused to return due to pressure from Iqbal and Rehana. The remaining four trustees will ensure that the school runs smoothly. We will consider removing Iqbal and Rehana for behaving like dictators.”

He added: “We were trying to get the school registered since 2005. When Iqbal Patel protested,we went to the High Court. The hearing is on July 12.”

Gyasuddin Shaikh said,“We want this school to start functioning like before.” He said the focus will be on registering the trust and keeping the dedicated trustees and removing the others.

Sharavar Husain Sheikh,whose daughter was punished by the school teacher last week,said: “We want the school to run as it was under the former trustees. The only thing we want is that Iqbal Patel and his wife Rehana should go. What happened with my daughter should not be repeated.”

According to the local residents,Iqbal wants to shut down the school and settle abroad. “If the school shuts down on some pretext or the other,it will help Iqbal shift abroad as soon as possible,” said a resident.