LAHORE, March 31: The Standardization Committee of the Inter-Boards Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) has recommended the IBCC chairman to convene a meeting of the federal and provincial education secretaries to remove disparity in the question papers of the secondary school and intermediate examinations.

Currently, all the eight education boards in the Punjab are offering no choice to the candidates in the papers whereas the federal board is offering 100 per cent choice to its candidates.

It is pertinent to mention that the Punjab government took the decision to end choice of questions on the recommendations of University of Education vice-chancellor Prof Dr Mustafa Habibullah three years ago.

As the decision was implemented on Class-IX students in 2002, hundreds of thousands of students have so far appeared in Class-IX and X examinations with no choice. According to the new policy, each question paper includes 60 per cent objective type and 40 per cent subjective type questions.

Most of the students, who had passed their Class-IX and X examinations in 2002 and 2003, respectively, are now set to appear in their FA, FSc annual examinations beginning on April 24.

According to the Punjab government's decision, all the eight BISEs would again set question papers offering no choice to the students. On the other hand, the federal board will offer 100 per cent choice to the candidates according to its routine.

Considering the situation, two first-year FSc (pre-medical) students - Ms Anam Ali Bhatti and Ms Sehrish Ghaffar of St Dominican Convent School, Bahawalpur - had submitted a joint writ petition in the Lahore High Court, Bahawalpur Bench, for relief.

Justice Sheikh Hakim Ali of the LHC, Bahawalpur Bench, asked the Punjab education secretary, Bahawalpur board chairman and Punjab Boards Committee of Chairmen to remove disparity in the question papers being set for the forthcoming intermediate annual examination.

When contacted, different boards' chairmen and the provincial education department officials admitted that those appearing from the Punjab would be at a real disadvantage.

Consequently, they would face difficulty at the time of admissions to medical colleges, engineering universities and other professional institutions.Lahore BISE chairman Prof Dr Zakariya Butt and Rawalpindi board chairman Aziz Hashmi told Dawn on Tuesday that the choice of questions for all the candidates appearing from the boards functioning at provincial or federal level should be uniform.

They said the boards functioning in other three provinces were also offering choice in papers set for matriculation and intermediate examinations. Answering a question, they said the IBCC's standardization committee had recommended the IBCC chairman to convene a meeting of the federal and provincial education secretaries to bring uniformity in the question papers.

Replying to another question, they said the PBCC and the IBCC were just recommendatory bodies and could not take decision for implementation across the country. The decision to end choice of questions was implemented after approval by the controlling authority, they added.

It is learnt that the federal board chairman, Cdre Shamshad Ahmad, is currently serving as the IBCC chairman, and he is now supposed to convene the meeting.

Punjab Higher Education Secretary Nazir Saeed, when contacted by this reporter, said the PBCC had been asked to hold its meeting and take an appropriate decision to handle the issue.

PBCC chairman Aslam Ghauri, who is also serving as Gujranwala board chairman, said the PBCC as a whole would go for an intra-court appeal because the LHC's Bahawalpur Bench had issued the direction without listening to all the boards' chairmen as well as the PBCC.

"We are trying to get the copy of the direction so that an ICA could be filed within a stipulated period of 21 days," he said.