Student facing murder charges scores two A*

KARACHI:

Shoaib Naveed, one of the suspects in the murder case of Hamza Ahmed, was among the students who received their O’ Level results on Tuesday. The only difference was that he took his exams with one hand chained to the chair.

Hamza, 17, was allegedly gunned down by the security guard, Amal, of Shoaib following an altercation between the two outside a restaurant in the Defence Housing Authority on April 27.

Shoaib along with his guard have been accused of the murder. Currently out on bail, the teenager sat his O’ Level exams while in custody in the Juvenile Jail. For his papers, he was escorted to the SKBZ College by police officers. In a separate room and with one hand chained to the chair, Shoaib, according to his father, became the first juvenile inmate in the city to take his O’ Level examination.

As the results came out on Tuesday, Shoaib learnt that he had secured two A*’s, three A’s and three B’s.

Sharing his result with The Express Tribune, Shoaib’s father said that he was delighted. “I think it is an excellent result keeping in mind the circumstances in which he gave the papers.” According to him, frequent power outages and ruckus created by other inmates in the jail along with the pressure of facing murder charges did not let Shoaib prepare well for the exams.

Since Shoaib was not allowed to make any phone calls while behind bars, he informed his family whether he needed books or notes when he would meet them.

According to the results issued, Shoaib got an A* in both English Language and Mathematics, A’s in Economics, Additional Mathematics and Physics, and B’s in English Literature, Urdu and Computer Studies. The court had given him permission to take his papers a day before the exams kicked off on May 9.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 14^th, 2013.