LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday suspended a directive issued by a single-judge bench to the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) to hold the next Central Superior Services (CSS) examination in Urdu.

Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, who was heading the two-judge bench, issued the order on an appeal filed by the FPSC.

The commission contended that the single-judge bench had taken the decision without considering certain ground realities. It said that implementation of the ruling was difficult because there was no Urdu syllabus or examiners who could assess the papers attempted in Urdu.

The commission added that Urdu had not even been made a compulsory language at the graduation level so far.

On February 14, Justice Atir Mahmood had directed the FPSC to hold the examination in Urdu next year in accordance with the principle laid down by the Supreme Court.

The petitioner, a lawyer, had planned to take the CSS exam this year. He objected to the advertisement announcing the exam, saying that it did not elaborate as to what language it would be conducted in.

However, the division bench suspended the earlier decision and issued notices to the respondents in the appeal for April 20.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2017