ISLAMABAD: Schools, colleges and universities in Pakistan’s capital will be closed from Feb. 6-9 for the upcoming national elections, the city’s deputy commissioner said on Thursday, as the South Asian country heads toward polls scheduled for Feb. 8 amid a challenging security situation.

Pakistani authorities in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Punjab provinces have previously announced that educational institutions will be closed from Feb. 6-9. Schools, colleges and universities in Pakistan are closed days before polling opens nationwide as several educational institutions are designated as polling stations where citizens cast their votes.

“Education institutes are off in Islamabad from 6th to 9th Feb, 2024,” District Magistrate Irfan Nawaz Memon wrote on social media platform X. 

According to a circular shared by the education ministry seen by Arab News, schools in the capital will reopen on Feb. 10. 

A day earlier, Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi announced that educational institutions in Punjab will remain closed from Feb. 6-9 due to elections. The same was announced by KP’s education department on Thursday. 

Over 120 million people are expected to cast their votes on Feb. 8 when polling booths open for voters nationwide. However, an uptick in attacks in Pakistan’s KP and Balochistan provinces bordering Afghanistan have prompted fears elections could be marred by violence. 

On Jan. 22, panic spread through the Pakistani capital after parents received messages from schools urging them to pick their children a few hours after they had dropped them due to security reasons. 

However, Islamabad Police hours later clarified that the security situation in the capital was “under control,” urging citizens not to pay heed to rumors and avoid spreading baseless speculation. 

Pakistan’s election regulator on Thursday held a high-level meeting with senior intelligence officials, following which it reiterated its resolve to hold elections on Feb. 8 despite the ongoing pre-poll violence.