BISE issues roll number slips to 37 students

LAHORE: Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Lahore has so far issued roll number slips to 37 Government College University students despite an LHC ruling directing it to issue all 88 slips.

It was learnt that negotiations were underway between the students’ cousel and the BISE. Advocate Mian Ali Irfan, the counselor, said that the remaining 51 students would file another petition today if the BISE continued disregarding the LHC order. However, he added that the rest of the students would soon get their slips. Meanwhile, the students yesterday staged a protest against the BISE for not issuing the slips. The protest was attended by students, parents and teachers.

They gathered in front of the BISE building near Upper Mall and blocked the road. Intermediate examinations are starting across the province from today. Around 2,65,000 students from Lahore would take the exams. The first exam would be of Computer Science. Earlier, GCU upheld the admission forms of 88 students on grounds that their attendance was not up to the standard.

The administration claimed that university policy stipulated that no student whose attendance fell short of 75 per cent would be allowed to sit in the exams. The affected students started organising protests against the decision and later challenged it in the Lahore High Court. Justice Sheikh Ahmed Farooq of the LHC on Thursday directed the BISE to issue the roll number slips to all 88 students.

The order was issued as a temporarily relief to the petitioners, who could then sit in the exams, while the case was postponed to a later date. However, on Friday the BISE chairman Akram Kashmiri refused to issue roll number slips to the students. One of the students who had appeared outside the BISE office yesterday to collect the slips said that the chairman first said that he would only issue slips to the 37 students whose names were mentioned in the petition.

He added that the chairman later retracted from his initial position and said that he would issue the slips to GCU administration who would then distribute it amongst the students. A student’s mother said that she had been waiting for six hours and the board had then informed her that her son’s name was not included in the petition so he would not get the slip. The protestors unanimously criticised the university and the board for wasting their time right before the first exam.

BISE PRO Qaiser Virk said that they have sent the slips to the GCU and students should consult their university administration in this regard. The GCU spokesman refused to comment on the issue saying that the matter was in court.