November 28, 2008	Friday	Ziqa'ad 29, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Nov 27: Minister of State for Education Ghulam Farid Kathia thwarted on Thursday an investigation by a standing committee of the National Assembly into a press report about increasing the marks of a daughter of Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar by the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education.

Mr Kathia said the issue could not be discussed because it was not on the meeting’s agenda and refused to comment on the issue. He is also reported to have ordered officials of his ministry to keep quiet.

When the committee’s chairman, Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali, said he had duly informed the education secretary about the matter, the minister insisted: “I need to be consulted personally and merely informing the ministry is not enough to add such a controversial issue to the agenda.”

The chairman said he had followed the relevant rules and had the right under law to bring any issue of public importance to the notice of the committee.

Under the rules, the chairperson of a National Assembly committee could call anyone to a meeting for personal hearing, Chaudhry Abid said.

Despite repeated requests and rulings by the chairman, Mr Kathia kept arguing that the issue could not be discussed. The argument consumed much of the time in the day’s proceedings.

At one point, FBISE chairperson Shaheen Khan refused to respond to the chairperson. “I will only answer to the chair if my minister allows me to speak,” she said.

Despite repeated orders from the chair, Ms Khan kept quiet, and Chaudhry Abid asked her to leave the room if she was not interested in the meeting.

“I have summoned you to respond to my questions, not to your minister’s. He is your minister outside this room. Inside the room I am chairing this meeting and you are supposed to answer my questions,” he remarked.

The chairman had called the meeting for a briefing on the education ministry’s affairs, but when the report was published, he included the matter in the agenda and wrote to officials concerned in this regard.

The FBISE chairperson had been summoned to brief the committee on the rules under which the board had granted additional marks to Farah Hameed Dogar.

Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman attended the meeting for a short time and left after advising the chairman to pay due respect to the minister.

At one stage, during the argument the chairman announced that the meeting had ended, but he resumed it at the insistence of members of committee, mainly from his party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N.

When the proceedings resumed, Mr Kathia kept raising objections. Ignoring his remarks, the chairman asked the journalist who reported the news to brief the committee on the matter.