After a severe social media clobbering for its alleged engagement in pushing anti-state agenda, the Beaconhouse School administration has finally decided to approach the Cyber Crime Wing of Federal Investigation Agency to seek action against “certain media individuals”.
In a statement obtained by the The Academia, Beaconhouse School said the online hate campaign was an engineered and orchestrated attempt initiated by a former employee with help of ‘certain media individuals’ in order to malign the repute of the institution. However, the school stopped short of naming the media individuals it claimed wee behind the assault.
The school management said the spirit of patriotism and commitment “to our beloved land is deeply embedded in all Beaconhouse School students, employees, and owners” and their students demonstrated the pride in their national identity, “even as their achievements take them to global platforms”.
Hell Hath No Fury Like An Employee Scorned?
According to the statement, the person identified to be behind the anti-Beaconhouse campaign was a former employee of The Educators who the school administration sacked for manhandling his superior officer in year 2017.
“This hate campaign was initiated by an ex-employee of The Educators who was terminated for physically assaulting his line manager. An FIR was lodged against this individual on 26-12-2017 as well as a defamation suit in the District Court Multan on 06-04-2018 and a criminal complaint in the FIA Cybercrime Circle on 24-02-2018,” the statement said.
However, the school administration added that the person did not have the means to “sponsor” an anti-Beaconhouse campaign of this magnitude, suggesting that the former employee “had become a willing pawn in the hands of certain media individuals whose motives are still unclear”. The school, however, said the hate campaign was “not organic and was fully engineered and sponsored.
Booking Trouble
Clarifying the issue at the heart of the anti-Beaconhouse campaign – a misrepresentation of the Pakistani map in a textbook used by The Educators – the school statement said The Educators had acknowledged “the human error” and “attempts have been underway to rectify it since 2015 when this was first brought to light”.
It said the process of completely eliminating the errors had taken longer than expected as there were over 250 such images of Pakistani map across 21 books. It added that the books had been cleared of the errors and the drafts submitted to the Punjab Curriculum & Textbook Board (PCTB).
About the issue of a foreign text book containing reference to the 1965 Pakistan-India War and Pakistan’s claimed loss therein, the statement said the school was being deliberately singled out when a number of schools, even Army Public Schools, had been using the same book.
Reiterating its patriotism and commitment to Pakistan, Beaconhouse said the administration, students and employees had come forward to help their countrymen on several occasions like 2005 earthquake, 2010 & 2014 floods, and the 2014 IDP crisis by providing emergency food and medical assistance.
