KARACHI, Aug 24: The City Nazim, Naimatullah Khan, has disagreed with the Sindh government's proposal of restoring sports quota in colleges, saying that such a move will damage the spirit of merit introduced in the form of the Centralised Admission Policy (CAP).

He stated this in reply to a letter by the Sindh education department, whereby, a proposal for giving admission on sports quota in the city's colleges under CAP was mooted by the Sindh governor.

The Sindh Education Department, in its letter sent to the city nazim, has stated inter alia: "The governor has been receiving numerous applications from sportsmen/sports bodies for restoration of reserved seats for sports.

The issue raised in all applications is that, by abolishing seats previously reserved for admission on sports basis, not only can quality institutions of Karachi not be able to build up their teams, but sportsmen can also not get admission to good institutions."

It was also pointed out in the letter that the governor had further observed that it was in the interest of both - the institutions and sportsmen - that seats reserved for sports be revived under CAP.

"He (governor) has, therefore, desired that the issue may please be examined, and if found feasible, action be initiated swiftly so that sportsmen applying for admission in the current academic year can also get benefit from the same."

However, the city nazim, in his letter sent to the education department recalled that CAP was approved by the Sindh Governor in 2000 and that all quotas were abolished through a notification issued on July 7, 2001 by the secretary Sindh Education Department.

Elaborating further, he said, the purpose of such a bold decision was to make the programme effective and transparent, and so that all seats in colleges were filled on 100 per cent merit.

"In fact, CAP has been successfully adopted by the City District Government Karachi and implemented strictly on the basis of merit only, accommodating 75,000 candidates in colleges and higher secondary schools under the policy.

The CAP programme has remarkably improved the quality and environment of educational institutions and their results, the nazim said, adding that colleges, which had less than 35 per cent results were now showing 75 to 80 per cent results.

He said: "Since CAP has completely ended 'sifarish' culture with the support of the chief minister and Sindh government, it would not be advisable to break any hole in the CAP programme.

I am thus not in favour of including sports or any other quota in this marks merit based programme, which is the only one prevailing in Pakistan." Mentioning in his letter that the provincial education minister, Dr Hamida Khuhro, also supported CAP, the city nazim hoped the governor would review his decision.