ISLAMABAD, Jan 16: The Islamabad High Court threw away on Friday petitions challenging the grant of additional marks to a daughter of Supreme Court Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar in the FSc examinations and held that no exception could be taken by the high court to the re-evaluation made by examiners.
“There is nothing wrong in the marks increased in re-evaluation by the experts in the field and no exception can be taken by this court to the procedure adopted by the chairman (Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education) and the re-evaluation made by examiners,” Chief Justice Sardar Mohammad Aslam observed while rejecting the two petitions for being without merit.
The petitions were moved by Iftikhar Hussain Rajput and Azam Khan Sultanpuri of the Tehreek Falah-i-Pakistan.
The 14-page order also asked the secretary of the ministry of education, the controlling authority of the FBISE, to consider the possibility of bringing an amendment to the board rules to provide a procedure for re-evaluation of papers.
Mr Sultanpuri was not happy with the decision and termed it a “death of justice” that would continue to happen in future. He expressed his intention to challenge the decision in the Supreme Court and said the order would have serious implications for brilliant students.
Raja Abdur Rehman, the counsel for former chairman of the FBISE Commodore (retd) Shamshad Ahmed, suggested provisions regarding the filing of an intra-court appeal in the IHC against the decision of a single bench.
“Victorious are the students as the decision has brought a good news for those who were discriminated in the process of examination papers’ checking. They could now appeal to the board for reassessment of their papers,” he said.
He said the controversy should now end and the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Education should accept the judgment.
On Dec 5, the Supreme Court while taking up a petition had stayed a probe by the standing committee into the matter, but later dismissed the petition.
On Dec 13, Farah Hameed Dogar came out in defence of herself and said that saying her career had no grey area and her blotless performance in school and college could be verified.
Authored by the IHC chief justice, the Friday’s judgment said that in order to foster the principle of justice a wrong had to be remedied. “In the absence of a statutory provision, residuary power rests with the authority to undo manifest case of victimisation by the examiners.”
Citing a Supreme Court verdict in the Salma Afroze case which had held that the principle of undoing the wrong was available to both the FBISE and the court, the judgment said re-evaluation could serve as a check on arbitrariness, casualness and negligent attitude of the examiner.
The constitutional courts in Pakistan, the judgment noted, had always been directing re-evaluation in cases of hardships and exceptional nature itself, where the rule did not permit such an exercise.
“An examinee may not suffer in his career on account of incorrect marks awarded by a sub- or head-examiner, in the absence of supervisory power with the board or the university directing re-evaluation,” it said.
During the proceedings, the record of answer scripts of Miss Farah, which had earlier been sealed, was de-sealed in the presence of the counsel for the parties for their examination.
