PESHAWAR: PHC accepts pleas for admission on Fata seats
Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, Nov 22: A division bench of the Peshawar High Court on Thursday accepted 15 identical writ petitions of tribal students pertaining to admissions against seats reserved for tribal areas in medical colleges.
The bench comprising Justice Nasirul Mulk and Justice Qaim Jan Khan directed the government to consider all those tribal students for admission against the reserved seats as there were no colleges in their respective tribal agencies.
The court observed that this order would be applicable to all tribal candidates irrespective of the fact that they have moved the high court or not.
The NWFP government had evolved a new admission policy on seats reserved for tribal areas.
According to the new policy no such tribal student was eligible for admission who had acquired education in the settled areas and not in his tribal agency.
The government claimed that in past the quota was meant for backward areas, but influentials from the agency resided in settled areas and got their children admitted on those reserved seats.
A few days back the high court decided various identical writ petitions of tribal students wherein the new admission policy of the NWFP government regarding admissions to medical colleges was challenged.
The high court had partially accepted those petitions and had directed that those petitioners in whose agencies there were no colleges should be given admission on seats reserved for tribal areas.
The instant 15 petitioners, majority of whom are girls, have stated that they had earlier not filed petitions against the policy of the NWFP government.
They stated that instead of allowing relief to all the tribal students the high court had only granted relief to the petitioners. They said that there were no girls colleges in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and thus they had to study in colleges in settled districts.
Advocates Abdul Lateef Afridi, Barrister Bachaa, Said Rehman Khan, Muhammad Asif and Moazam Butt appeared for the petitioners. The counsel argued that the petitioners belonged to various tribal agencies of Fata.
They added that as there were no colleges in their respective agencies they had to pass their intermediate examinations from settled districts. They prayed the court that they should be allowed admission on the touchstone of the judgment delivered by the high court in earlier petitions.
The advocate-general, NWFP, also conceded the point that in different agencies there were no higher educational institutions.
The court observed that in the absence of colleges, specially for girls, the students had to explore settled areas for education.
