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Chief Justice Dogar's daughter marks row
Dogar's daughter defends herself in marks row
Islamabad, Dec 15: Farah Hameed Dogar, the daughter of Chief Justice
Abdul Hameed Dogar, on Saturday came out in defence of herself in the
controversy regarding grant of additional marks in the FSc examination, saying
her career had no grey area and her blotless performance in school and college
could be verified.
"The campaign against the dignity of my father and
family has some ulterior motives other than emphasising educational justice,"
Farah Dogar said in a much delayed statement issued to the media.
The
controversy has already reached the Supreme Court and the Islamabad High Court
(IHC) as the high court has sealed relevant records of the federal board while
the Supreme Court has stayed the National Assembly Standing Committee on
Education from probing into the matter - a move that instantly triggered a
standoff between the parliament and the Supreme Court.
The apex court has
also received a petition to unseat the chairman of the standing committee for
aggressively pursuing the issue.
In the statement, Farah Dogar also
resolved to contest the pending case before the high court, in which her FSc
mark sheets have been challenged and said she reserved the right to sue for
damages. She said she was also considering filing cases against the people
concerned.
Former Attorney General Malik Mohammad Qayyum has given a nod
to defend Farah Dogar before the high court where he is also planning to file a
contempt of court petition for defaming the judiciary.
The "ugly"
campaign in a section of the press has caused her great mental agony and pain to
the extent that she may not be able to continue studies, the statement
said.
"In fact my future has been put at stake," she said.
"The
pursuit of education is my fundamental right," she said. "Is it a crime to seek
education or employment as a child of a judge or the chief justice?"
"For
the past several days, I am being constantly targeted by a section of media that
seems hell-bent to question the integrity of my dear father who happens to be
the Chief Justice of Pakistan," the statement said.
Unlike influential
critics, it said, she did not exercise any influence over the media or the
parliament, adding that she would exercise her right to state the truth in black
and white.
About special favour in her FSc examination, the statement
said that she was just one of the 1,093 applicants who applied for re-checking
of their answer books after the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary
Education declared the results.
She said she was among the 201 students
in whose favour the board revised marks sheets. She applied for admission in
three private medical colleges and also appeared in the entry test after the
revision.
Not a single of the three institutions was in the public sector
and their doors are open for self-finance studies, she said, adding that she got
admission in the International Islamic Medical College wherein 50 seats were
filled on merit and another 50 were reserved for children of overseas
Pakistanis.
"The college has allocated five seats for Pakistan Railways
and one for Al-Mezan Foundation, a welfare body of retired judges.
"The
seat in question is rotated among the four provinces and this year it was
reserved for Sindh from where I happened to be the only candidate," she
said.
She explained that the constitution extends state protection to the
daughter of the chief justice until she attained the age of 21 years but the
ruthless critics were unwilling to accept her rights like any other
citizen.
"If a thousand students were entitled to apply for rechecking,
why should the child of the judge be denied a fair chance," she
asked.
She said she was not resourceful to pull the strings in the media
yet her faith in God Almighty reassured that the truth would prevail.
"I
shall defend all my legitimate acts as a student and secure my due without any
trespass," she said. Dawn
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No winter vacation in schools this year
Rawalpindi: Winter vacation would not be observed in educational institutes throughout Punjab
including Rawalpindi. Sources in the Education Department told Online that the
Punjab government has decided to start the academic year from April 1 instead of
September 1, therefore, winter vacation would not be observed in educational
institutes. Sources went on to say that winter vacation would be observed in
educational institutes situated in mountainous areas and those experiencing
snowfall.
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RBISE HSSC examinations result on Jan 3
Rawalpindi: Rawalpindi Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education (RBISE) will announce the result
of supplementary examination of Intermediate on January 3, 2009. Spokesperson of
the Board Arslan Cheema said the results would be announced by eight boards of
the province on the same day. Chairman RBISE Dr Iftikhar Baig would announce the
results at 10am at a press conference. The News
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AIOU nears enrolment target of 1m students
Islamabad: Distant education has proved its worth in the country, which is evident by the fact that
Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) is going to make one million enrolments
shortly.
This was stated by AIOU VC Prof Dr Mahmood H Butt in an
exclusive interview. AIOU, a member of a limited network of
universities offering distant education, would start four-year graduation
programme next year to meet international standards, he said.
The
programme had been designed according to recommendations of the Higher Education
Commission (HEC) and initially students would be enrolled in the disciplines of
chemistry, microbiology and education.
Dr Butt said 30 percent of total
teachers in the country were once students of the AIOU in one way or the other.
He regretted that around 70 percent of the teachers in the country were
undergraduates.
He said only less than four percent of the total students
could reach the higher level of education, which was much lower than the
international standards. He was of the view that in order to earn a respectable
ranking in the world, there was a need to lift this percentage up to 10 percent
in the next 10 years.
To drive his point home, he put a comparison of
Pakistan with South Korea, where more than 45 percent students went to
universities.
He expressed concern over less than 60 percent enrolment
of children in schools with a 30 percent dropout rate in the first three years
of education saying another 20 percent left school before completing primary
education.
"The country is allocating 2.5 percent of the GDP in education
sector, which should be enhanced to nine percent in the next ten years," he
recommended. "If we want to achieve millennium development goals (MDGs), we
should at least double the allocation for primary education sector within a
couple of years," he said. The AIOU vice chancellor said the mode of prevailing
distance learning system had changed and recommended technology-driven distance
learning to replace the system. "Easy access to computer for students at
reasonable price, subsidised connectivity and no-taxes on computers for
education is a must to achieve desired results," he said.
He dispelled
the impression that AIOU degrees had less worth, saying it was only a perception
and not a reality. "We have adopted a strict criteria for tutors and only those
with Master's degree in relevant field and five-year experience are registered
as tutors with the AIOU," he said.
He said before enrolling students for
MPhil and PhD programmes, the university set a high merit and students with at
least 60 percent marks could take admissions, having passed GRE.
"Moreover, the university does not start any programme unless it has at
least three PhD teachers for it," he said.
About financial crunch in
higher education sector, Dr Butt said it did not affect much as the AIOU got
only 11 percent of its recurring grant from the HEC while it met the rest of its
expenditure by its own resources. However, the government's decision to hold up
the HEC grants had badly affected development projects in the education sector
as a whole, he said.
He said it was astonishing that the HEC budget was
even less than any one university in Singapore. "Allocations in educations
sector is investment in future of the nation," he said. Daily Times
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| Education News | | Updated: 23 May, 2012 |
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