KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday reserved its order on a set of petitions filed against provincial government for having National Testing Service (NTS) conduct a fresh test, after its earlier test became controversial, for admission to government-run medical colleges and universities.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Munib Akhtar reserved the order after hearing arguments of lawyers representing the provincial government, students and others. The court will announce the order on a date to be notified later and till then, the court’s earlier stay order will remain in force.

During Thursday’s proceedings, additional advocate general argued that the government had authority to intervene after the test results became controversial when its question paper was leaked to social networking websites.

He said that the report of the inquiry committee constituted by the provincial chief minister had compiled its findings on the paper leak.

Justice Ahmed remarked that no one was aware of the findings of the committee and asked the law officer to satisfy the court regarding the controversy involving recent tests.

The petitioners’ lawyer said that his clients came to know that the paper had been leaked through social networking websites and argued that annulling the results entirely would deprive the petitioners of their rights.

The petitioners asked the court to declare the government notification for annulling the NTS test results for admissions null and void.

They said the impugned notification was issued without lawful authority and argued that the students who had cleared the test were entitled to be given admission to the medical college or university in accordance with their result.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2017