Tension subsides as professors agree to ‘supervise’ exams

BHC’s timely intervention provides respite to students, teachers alike

QUETTA: The tension brewing for more than two weeks between the University of Balochistan and the Balochistan Professors and Lecturers Association (BPLA) over supervising the BA, BSC and FA, FSC exams that begin on Saturday (today) has finally ended as the latter agreed to perform its duty.

According to details, the BPLA and the Government Teachers Association (GTA) had earlier announced to boycott the exams due to lack of coordination between the UoB and the Balochistan Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE).

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On Friday UoB Controller Examinations Abdul Malik Tareen approached the Balochistan High Court against the BPLA’s decision of boycotting exams.

The two-member bench, comprising Chief Justice Muhammad Noor Meskanzai and Justice Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar, heard the controller examinations’ constitutional petition and remarked that since the court had banned government employees from calling strikes in 2015, this boycott would be against the law.

Respondent, BPLA President Professor Agha Zahid, agreed to supervise the exams. However, Zahid, through his counsels Muhammad Wassay Tareen and Jawad Hassan Khan, Advocates, contended that there were issues that needed to be resolved.

The bench fixed May 7, 2018 for hearing the BPLA president’s petition.



According to a notification of the BHC, “Since the respondents have undertaken to conduct the forthcoming examinations, we direct each and every employee and any member of the BPLA to discharge any duty assigned to him/them with regard to conducting examination, scheduled to be held with effect from April 14, 2018.”

During a press conference on Thursday, Professor Zahid had said, “There should have been coordination between both the major institutions regarding exams in the province, but their lack of coordination and non-serious attitude have created a chaos-like situation for students and teachers alike.”

The professors of BPLA and GTA had also expressed regret over the lack of coordination and non-serious attitude between two major educational institutions UoB and Balochistan BISE.



Professor Zahid and others had said that the schedule issued for the exams would disturb the professors; therefore, “we have decided to boycott the exams”.

Both the BPLA and the GTA professors had said that the liability for the boycott would be on the UoB and the Balochistan BISE.

“We shared our grievances with the UoB and the Balochistan BISE, but no one took our issues seriously,” Professor Zahid added.

He said, “We have the right to defend our decision on every forum, because we haven’t demanded a raise in salary, instead we highlighted the rising number of serious issues causing difficulties for professors, teachers and students.”