KARACHI, Jan 22: The advocate-general Sindh sought time on Tuesday for seeking the government’s instructions when counsel for the petitioners challenging omission of names from the IBA test’s second list proposed re- examination of a limited number of candidates.

A division bench of the Sindh High Court, consisting of Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Zia Pervez, was hearing petitions of some of the contenders, who had challenged omission of their names from the second list.

S. M. Iqbal, counsel for some of the petitioners, argued that test of 70 students, 35 those who had been dropped and the same number who were accommodated be held again.

Advocate-general Sindh Raja Qureshi placed on record photocopies of two cheques which were allegedly paid to the absconding accused, Asim Iftekhar, by Atiq Majid and Ahmed Salman Shaikh.

His contention was that these cheques proved that manipulations and forgery had taken place.

Defence counsel S. M. Iqbal and Mahmood Alam Rizvi argued that the persons whose cheques were submitted by the AG were not party in this case. Mr Rizvi claimed that even those parents whose children had cleared the test and were given admission to medical colleges, were allegedly telephoned by IBA personnel and told to make payments.

He said actions against the petitioners on the basis of the alleged forged cheques was not justified. They were denied admission and those who allegedly secured fewer numbers than them were given admission.

The defence counsel argued that despite declaring 1st test void due to manipulations, no criminal case was registered against those responsible for that.

Mr Iqbal and Mr Rizvi submitted that asking all the 5,000 students to reappear in test would be wrong. They suggested that test of 35 students who had been dropped from the list and those who were accommodated be held under the directives of the SHC.

The court observed that without hearing those 35 students, who had been admitted, the matter could not be decided.

The AG submitted that it could be done by asking the principals concerned to ensure presence of such students in the court. The AG sought at least two days’ time for seeking the government’s instructions on limited re-examination, and said the court had to exercise parental jurisdiction to suppress the mischief.

The petitioners’ case was that answer sheets of 35 students were changed and manipulated deliberately to accommodate 35 other students who were below the merit level.

Petitioner Shaikh Nadeem Roshan had cleared his Intermediate in grade “A” from Karachi. He appeared in the Entrance Test conducted by the IBA, Karachi, for the year 2001-2002, bearing Roll No/Sheet No 0659.

Counsel Iqbal, in the petition, had submitted that the petitioner was declared selected achieving merit order 57. The photocopy of marks sheet and copy of the answer sheet was received by the candidate on Nov 27.

According to the procedure of the entrance test, after issuance of a provisional list a final list was to be issued by the Selection Committee. The Final List was issued on Dec 26. The name of the petitioner was removed from the final list.

This was unprecedented that the name of a successful candidate was removed from the final list without assigning any reason and without issuing any show cause to the candidate, he contended.

It was contended that the petitioner, unable to comprehend the removal of his name, received a notice from a DSP seeking his attendance for evidence in connection with the FIR registered against the staff of the IBA at Mubina Town police station.

The petitioner contacted other students and came to know that investigations were under way against the arrested employees of the IBA in respect of the above affair, but till date the petitioner had not received any intimation from the Selection Committee regarding removal of his name from the final list.

The petitioner’s case that there seemed to be a twofold conspiracy. To disrepute the IBA and to mint money from the students who had failed to succeed in the test with a planned theory of criminal charges against the IBA staff at the costs of 34 innocent students.

In compliance with the court’s directives Abdul Hameed Khan, connected with the IBA’s testing service, filed affidavit wherein he explained the process.

The merit of a candidate was determined by taking into account 10% of matriculation marks, 40% of Intermediate and 50% of IBA test score as given in the entrance test mark sheets, he submitted.

Initially he started with the three cases mentioned above and found the complaint of Ms Kavita to be correct. The matter was submitted by the IBA director to the Sindh governor for information.

On complete rechecking, in the first round 11 forged answer sheets from Hyderabad centre, 22 from Karachi centre and none from Larkana centre were detected. In the second round one more forged answer sheet was detected. in the third round which was conducted by representatives from Dow Medical College and Liaquat Medical University of Jamshoro, one more forged answer sheet from Karachi centre was detected. In all, there were 35 forged answer sheets. In the provisional list which was issued to the DMC, LMC and CMC the names of above- mentioned 35 candidates were included in the provisional list issued to the DMC and the LMC. The purpose of giving a provisional list was to provide candidates and opportunity to submit objections regarding the evaluation of the graded photocopy of answer sheets which were sent to the candidates immediately after the announcement of provisional list along with the key.

Due to the above-mentioned forgery, ie, the substitution of answer sheets, the names of above-mentioned candidates were not included in the final list.

The IBA director sent a letter on Dec 13 to Mubina Town police station for lodging FIR against unknown staff of the IBA who were involved in the malpractice and forging results. Thereupon FIR No 97 of 2001 was registered at Mubina Town PS. Subsequently, investigation was transferred to the SDPO Port Subdivision, Karachi. Asim Majeed and Amir Hanif were arrested, and the middle man, Asim Iftekhar, had been absconding, and the matter was still under investigation.

The IBA official claimed that the Institute entertained an unsigned complaint and indulged in a painstaking exercise to scrutinize 5,426 answer sheets.