29 July 2004	Thursday	11 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

LAHORE, July 28: Punjab Chief Secretary Kamran Rasool has recommended to the chief minister to immediately remove the Lahore Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education chairman and the secretary from offices for implicating two girls in a case.

The chief secretary has given the recommendations in the light of an inquiry into the case in which two girls - an FSc student and an MBBS student - were booked by Civil Lines police allegedly for damaging flower pots and the chairman's car on the BISE premises on July 12.

The inquiry committee, headed by the education secretary, held board chairman Prof Dr Zakariya Butt and secretary Prof Haji Muhammad Dogar responsible for committing excesses against the girls by getting an FIR lodged against them.

The inquiry described the FIR as strict and uncalled for because the girls were booked under sections 186 (interfering with official business), 427 (damaging the government building or property) and 506 (hurling threats).

According to reports, the FSc student appeared in pre-medical examination in April this year to improve her division. While appearing in the chemistry examination, she was provided the question paper under the new syllabus (pattern), though it should have been according to the old one.

She filed an application with the board, requesting it to investigate. She reportedly visited the BISE office at least eight times for redress of her complaint, but to no avail.

On July 12, she along with her teacher (the MBBS student) approached the BISE chairman who, instead of redressing her grievance, put her off by saying that the matter was pending with a committee.

Reacting to it, the girls allegedly broke some flower pots and threw one of them at the chairman's car. The girls and their parents later apologized to the chairman, but he insisted on getting a case registered against them. Official sources said the chairman and the secretary would be removed from their posts in a couple of days.