SHC reserves order on plea against NTS results' annulment

Judge says no one aware of inquiry committee's findings

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) reserved on Thursday its order on a petition against the annulment of results of the entry tests for government medical colleges and universities in the province.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Munib Akhtar, reserved the verdict after hearing arguments from the lawyers representing the provincial government, students and others. The order will be announced on a date to be notified later by the court's office.



The petition was filed by the students, who had successfully passed the pre-admission entry test held by the National Testing Service (NTS) on October 21 at various places across the province.

The students' lawyer, Advocate Anwar Mansoor Khan, had informed the judges that the provincial government had annulled the results of last month's test in light of the findings of the inquiry against the NTS management and others. However, he argued that no reasons were assigned in the official notification regarding cancellation of the NTS test results.

Therefore, the court was pleaded to grant a stay against the nullification of the results till final disposal of the matter.



On the last date of the hearing, the court had directed the provincial government's law officer to argue under what authority the provincial government could interfere in the matters of the NTS and nullify results of the test conducted by it.

During Thursday's proceedings, an additional advocate-general argued that the provincial government had the authority to intervene in the matter after the test results became controversial following the leaking of the question paper through social networking websites.

The law officer added that the report of the inquiry committee constituted by the provincial chief minister had compiled its findings into the paper leak. A report on such findings is available on the court's record, the law officer maintained.



Justice Ahmed remarked that no one was aware of the findings of the inquiry committee. He observed that the matter of the government's authority to intervene will be looked into later, therefore, asked the law officer to satisfy the court regarding the controversy involving recent tests.

To the court's query, the petitioners' lawyer said his clients came to know that the paper had been leaked through social networking websites. He argued that annulling the results entirely will deprive the petitioners of their rights.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the judges reserved their verdict to be announced later. Till then, the court continued its earlier stay order, restraining the NTS and government from announcing results of the October 21 tests or notifying a date for a fresh test.