PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court Bar Association (PHCBA) on Friday moved the Peshawar High Court against “dismal” results of written examination conducted by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Service Commission (PSC) to fill 105 posts of civil judges-cum judicial magistrates, wherein only three of the 1024 candidates were declared passed.
The exam results were announced by the PSC on Sept 30 for the BPS-18 vacant posts which were advertised by the PHC in April 2026.
PHCBA secretary general Ashfaq Daudzai filed a petition through its president, Aminur Rehman Yousafzai, requesting the court to declare that the announcement of Sept 30 of the results of the written examination, to the extent that it reported only three candidates as qualified, was arbitrary, unreasonable and non-transparent and in violation of different provisions of the Constitution.
The petitioner sought directives for the respondents including the PSC’s chairman, its secretary and director examination to produce the complete record of the examination, namely the answer scripts, orders of appointment and qualifications of examiners, marking schemes or keys, coding and anonymisation records, moderation and scaling records, tabulation sheets, any decision on grace marks, and the corresponding results and marks data of the two preceding Judicial Service recruitments.
Requests court to declare the same as ‘arbitrary, non-transparent’
He further sought directives that the answer scripts of the candidates be re-examined by independent examiners (not previously involved) under anonymity and under such supervision as the court deemed fit, in the alternative of the English General and English Essay paper and of all candidates who fell short of the qualifying standard by such margin as the Court may determine.
The petitioner requested the court to direct the respondents, on completion of the re-examination, to prepare the merit list under Regulation 32 of the KP PSC Regulations, 2017 and para 9 of the Appendix to it and to proceed up to the full number of advertised posts, and restrain it from allowing any of the 105 posts to lapse or from re-advertising them in the meantime.
He also sought the court’s directives for the PSC to frame and notify, within a period fixed by the court, a transparent mechanism for the checking of papers for all future recruitments to the judicial service.
The petitioner said that the PSC conducted the written examination from April 21 to April 29, 2026.
He said that against 105 posts, 3,097 applications were received and 1,024 candidates appeared.
The petitioner added that the exam results announced on Sept 30 declared that only three candidates qualified the written examination which meant only 0.29pc of the total appeared candidates cleared it, whereas 102 of the 105 advertised posts (97.14pc) remained without a single qualified candidate.
He contended that the figures disclosed a striking anomaly, as the law papers, which the Appendix required to be answered in English, were passed by 81pc (Criminal Law), 78pc (Qanun-e-Shahadat and Pleadings), 70pc (Islamic Jurisprudence), 59pc (Civil Law-I) and 54pc (Civil Law-II) of the candidates.
The very same candidates, the petitioner stated, were reported to have failed the English General and English Essay paper at the rate of 85pc, while 96pc passed Pashto.
The petitioner said that even of the 149 candidates who were said to have cleared English, only three were reported to have cleared every paper and the aggregate.
Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2026
