PESHAWAR, Feb 21: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday reserved its judgment on a writ petition challenging the holding of entrance test for admission to the Pakistan Forest Institute (PFI).

A bench comprising Justice Ijazul Hassan and Justice Dost Mohammad Khan heard the petition filed by Mufti Idrees and 22 other students who had challenged the holding of the test last year for admission against 200 seats in MSc and BSc at the institute.

During proceedings, the bench expressed concern over the environmental degradation in the country. “Due to prevalent corruption in the forestry sector deforestation is on the rise and soon we will face a situation like tsunami,” observed Justice Dost Mohammad.

The bench observed that the forest officers used expensive deodar wood in their residences. “All of us are answerable to nature,” Justice Dost Mohammad said, adding that it was the environmental degradation which had resulted in the tsunami two years ago killing hundreds of thousands of people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and other countries.

The bench also inquired from Raja Zareef, principal of the PFI, the only forestry research and training institute in the country, what steps had been taken for curtailing corruption in the sector.

The principal informed the court that he was only an educationist and not an official of the forests department.

The court asked the principal why less seats had been reserved for the NWFP in jobs announced by the federal forests department when a majority of the forest areas are in the province.

The principal said that as the population of Punjab was more than any other province, therefore the highest number of seats had been reserved for it.

The bench asked how more seats could be reserved for the areas where forests did not exist.

Advocate Abdul Lateef Afridi appeared for the petitioners and contended that the entry test had been conducted without any legal backing. He argued that nowhere in the prospectus or the relevant laws was it mentioned that a test would be conducted.

“The admission committee had fixed 60 per cent marks for the entry test and 40 per cent for academic qualification, which was a great injustice,” Mr Afridi said. He added that the PFI was affiliated with the Peshawar University and there was no provision of entrance test in the rules of the university.

The institute’s principal said that the test had been introduced for the sake of merit.

When the bench inquired which law granted the institute the powers to introduce the test, Mr Zareef stated that under the rules the admission committee had the power to take any step for transparency in admissions.

When the bench inquired whether the syndicate had given approval for the test, the principal replied in negative, stating that there was no need to take approval from the body.

He said the test had been conducted by the National Testing Service.

The bench observed that there was no credibility of entry tests as in the past the papers of entry tests had been sold at filling stations.

It further said that there should be clear provision for the entrance test in the law.