Permission: Court allows students to sit exams

Court suspends notification in which private school science students of Grade 9 were not allowed to appear for exams.

RAWALPINDI: A court on Tuesday suspended the notification of Secretary Higher Education Punjab in which private school science students of Grade 9 were not allowed to appear for their exams.

Justice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi Bench allowed the students to appear for their exams.

The petitioner, President All Pakistan Private Schools Association Abrar Ahmed Khan, filed a writ petition through his legal counsel Raila Saboohi in LHC Rawalpindi Bench, in which she challenged the notification issued by the Education Department of Punjab which barred the chairman Admission Board Rawalpindi from accepting the admission forms of the students for the March 2011 exam session.

According to Saboohi, the Education Department of Punjab’s 2004 notification was revoked for the March 2010 exam session after protests by students, but they issued a similar notification for 2011.

She told the court that the petitioner consulted the Secretary High Education Punjab several times, and the association convinced them to withdraw the notification in the best interest of students.

She told the court that this notification is against the fundamental right of education as defined in Article 25 of the constitution, making it illegal and unjustified.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 15^th, 2010.