SHC questions duration of judges’ written test

Court also asks to see papers of candidates who cleared the test.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has asked the authorities concerned why the duration of a written exam for judicial magistrates and civil judges was reduced from two hours to one.

A division bench comprising Justice Athar Saeed and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar also asked for the copies of the candidates who passed the aptitude test, to see that how they managed to finish the test in just one hour.

The bench earlier heard Barrister Abid Zuberi, leading counsel for petitioners Ghulam Abbas Memon and 14 other candidates, and other lawyers for another set of petitioners who questioned the results of the pre-qualification or aptitude test.

The counsel maintained that the petitioners were informed that there will be 120 multiple choice questions (MCQs) and they will have two hours to complete the exam. But when they were handed out the papers, they saw that there were 100 questions, which had to be completed in 60 minutes.

“It is not humanly possible to answer [those] 100 questions in 60 minutes,” claimed the counsel.

The manner in which the exam was conducted raised suspicion among the petitioners, Zuberi said, adding that the bar associations have also expressed their reservations on this.

The bench said the issue warrants the issuance of pre-admission notices. It ordered the office to issue notices to the respondents for January 19 and directed respondent Additional Member Inspection Team to explain why the duration of test was halved.

Only 69 candidates out of more than 2,000 candidates qualified in the aptitude test and were allowed to appear in second stage of the exam.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2011.