IHC reserves judgment for today: Farah Dogar case | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

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IHC reserves judgment for today: Farah Dogar case

ISLAMABAD, Jan 15: Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) here on Thursday reserved for Friday his judgment in the case of awarding additional marks to Farah Hameed Dogar, the daughter of Supreme Court Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar.

Former Attorney General of Pakistan Malik Mohammad Qayyum, representing Farah in the court, said the case in question was not unprecedented as he could quote many illustrations about award of additional marks to students on request after re-examination.

Hearing the arguments of the lawyer, the IHC chief justice, Sardar Mohammad Aslam, observed that there might be several examples of additional marks but re-evaluations were usually carried out after the courts issued such directions. Now the question is whether or not the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) chairman had the authority to order re-evaluation/assessment of the papers, the court observed.

Responding to these remarks, Malik Qayyum said according to the Federal Board or Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) Act 1975, the chairman had the authority of a chief executive and he could issue these orders along with the orders of the courts.

Earlier presenting arguments in support of his petition, Mohammad Azam Khan Sultanpuri advocate said Farah Hameed case had created a bad impression about the judiciary.

He said as per information furnished by the federal board, the daughter of the chief justice first applied for the re-evaluation of her four papers and later for two more papers.

In an identical petition Barrister Syed Mohammad Jawed Iqbal Jafri, lawyer for the petitioner Iftikhar Hussain Rajpoot, argued before the court that no response was filed in reply to his petition.

Barrister Jafri said in this case the re-evaluation of the papers had been done three times, once on September 12, then on 13th and the third time on September 15.

How is it possible to do re-evaluation three times whereas it is written quite clearly on the back of the application form that only rechecking or recounting of the marks would be done and not re-evaluation/assessment.

Barrister Jafri said Malik Qayyum had said the FBISE chairman was the repository of all powers whereas he himself as a high court judge had ruled that nobody was repository of all powers.

The identical petitions have sought annulment of the award of additional marks to Farah Dogar and submission of an affidavit by her describing the circumstances which led to her getting additional marks at the intermediate level.

Separately the IHC chief justice expressed his dismay over the way some recruitments were made in the National Assembly while hearing appeal of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani against his conviction by an accountability court.
Source: Dawn
Date:1/16/2009