BISE Lahore Intermediate exams started

Intermediate examinations start : Stubborn BISE leaves students in limbo
Lahore, May 08: The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) has opted to offer its own interpretation of Thursday's Lahore High Court (LHC) order, deciding not to issue roll number slips to students whose names had not been included in the writ petition seeking the dismissal of an order by the Government College University (GCU) that disqualified 88 students from appearing in intermediate examinations.

As a result of this move, the 88 students, declared eligible by the Lahore High Court (LHC) to appear in the upcoming intermediate examinations – starting today – on Friday protested against the BISE chairman for refusing to issue roll number slips to all the students.

Remove the chairman: Parents of the students, their lawyers and teachers joined the students in their protest and blocked the road in front of the BISE office, demanding the BISE chairman be removed for violating the orders of the court. The protesters said the BISE chairman was playing with the future of the students by violating the court's instructions and demanded that he be removed from his office. "The students have to appear for their exams today (Saturday) and the chairman has chosen to ruin their future and has forced parents to take to the streets," the protesters said.

Take notice: Parents said the government should also take notice of the GCU move, as "they are the reason for the whole mess and it is their poor policies that have resulted in students protesting instead of preparing for their exams".

It is worth noting that the intermediate examinations are starting across the province from today (Saturday) and around 265,000 students are set to appear in the exams. A student, seeking anonymity, said that the 88 students had arrived at the BISE office early in the morning, after the LHC directed the board to issue their roll number slips, which it had earlier refused after the GCU sent an order declaring that the 88 students did not have the required attendance to be eligible to appear in the exams.

After learning that they were not being allowed to appear in the exams, the students in question began protesting across the city, including the Governor's House and GCU. On Thursday, Justice Sheikh Ahmed Farooq of the LHC directed BISE to issue the roll number slips to the aforementioned 88 students. The judge had suspended the operation on the order of the GCU vice chancellor through which he had requested that roll number slips not be issued to the students. The judge issued this order to the BISE authorities as interim relief to the students and postponed the hearing for a date to be fixed later. On Friday, the students arrived at the BISE offices, only to be greeted by the chairman, who denied them their roll number slips."The chairman said he would issue roll number slips to only the 37 students who had filed the petition in the LHC and that the roll number slips would be issued to the GCU authority, who would then be responsible for giving them to the students," a student claimed. A student's mother said she had been standing outside the BISE building for six hours, adding that the chairman was not willing to issue her son's roll number slip as he had not been one of the 37 who had filed a petition against the board. "I fail to see how the chairman cannot understand the instructions of the LHC, who suspended GCU's order," she said.

All are eligible: Waseem Arif Chaudhry, the petitioners' counsel said that the LHC had suspended the GCU order that had barred the students from sitting in examinations, therefore "all 88 students are now eligible to sit in their exams". He said it was unfair that the board authorities were not issuing roll number slips to the students whose names had not been included in the petition. He said the names of 37 students had been included in the writ petition, "but when the court suspended the GCU order, all students became eligible to sit in the examinations.

BISE Chairman Muhammad Akram Kashmiri said the board had issued roll number slips to those 37 students whose names had been included in the petition, "according to the court's instructions". He said the board had discussed the issue with its legal advisor, and "he informed me that the court's instructions are only applicable to the aforementioned 37 students". Akram said the board respected the court's order, adding that he could not directly issue roll number slips to candidates, "as it is a rule that the roll number slips are sent to the college concerned". BISE PRO Qaiser Virk said the roll number slips had been issued to GCU, adding that the students should go to their college to receive the slips.

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PU teachers protest against IJT
Lahore: The Punjab University Academic Staff Association (PUASA) rallied on Friday, led by its president Prof Dr Abdul Ghaffar and General Secretary Professor Javed Sami. Faculty members participating in the protest wore black gowns, badges and ribbons, carrying placards and banners inscribed with anti-Islami Jamiat Taliba (IJT) slogans. The procession began at 10:30am from the Institute of Engineering and Technology and concluded at the Institute of Education and Research. Police have still not arrested all the accused IJT activists who beat up PU Disciplinary Committee Head Prof Dr Iftikhar Baloch, including IJT leader Usman Ashraf who is nominated in the FIR. Daily times

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IJT protest for Aafia release
Lahore: Punjab University (PU) chapter Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT), staging a protest demonstration, on Friday demanded immediate release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui. The demo was held outside the PU Jamia Mosque after Jumma prayers on New Campus where dozens of IJT activists, carrying banners and placards, had gathered to express their resentment.

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Private school owners reject new taxes
Lahore: Representative bodies of private schools in the country including Azad Kashmir have condemned the regulatory authority bill, value added tax, old age benefit, social security tax and other taxes levied by the government.

These bodies have decided to form a grand alliance of private schools of Pakistan.

a joint communique of the representative bodies at the end of a meeting said if the government enforced these taxes, all of its burden would be on the already financially constraint parents of the students, said a press release.

It was also decided unanimously in the meeting that if government tried to enforce the Value Added Tax and Regulatory Authority Bill forcibly then the grand alliance would launch a long march towards Islamabad and hunger strike and sit-in camps would be set up.

The release said that President All Pakistan Private Schools Welfare Association (APPSWA) Syed Zulqarnain Shah, Central President National Association of Private Schools Sahibzada Sajjad Chishti, President Private Schools Network Islamabad Dr Afzal Babar, President Private Schools Management Association Karachi Khalid Shah, President All Pakistan Private schools Welfare Association Balochistan Abdul Rasheed Kakar, President Private Schools Association Khyber-Pakhtoonkhawa Aqeel Raza Khan, President Private Schools Association Muzaffarabad Azad Kashmir Col (Retd) Mushtaq, President Joint Action Committee Punjab Ch Jamil, Chairman Joint Action Committee Pakistan Mohammad Yasin, Chairman Private Schools Supreme Council Multan Khalid Javed Warraich and others attended the meeting.

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Body to check performance of subject specialists
Lahore: Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) has set up a high powered committee to review the performance of subject specialists (SS) working in 24 districts of the province.

A DGPR handout said this was decided in a departmental meeting held in the office of PEF chairman on Friday.

The committee was set up under the chairmanship of PEF managing director. The meeting was told that subject specialists were responsible for tutoring students and their teachers in the subjects of English, mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology. The committee would complete evaluation process of subject specialists by the mid of this month, the meeting decided.

The meeting was also informed that PEF in collaboration with the British Council had arranged a six day capacity-building training session for TICSS English Subject Specialists from 24 districts. The news

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Teachers air their demands at demo
Rahim yar khan: Hundreds of government schoolteachers, including women, from Rahim Yar Khan, Sadiqabad, Khanpur and Liaqatpur tehsils under the banner of the Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) held a protest rally here on Friday.

The participants carrying placards and banners highlighting their demands gathered in front of Jinnah Hall and reached DCO's office by marching on Shahi Road and Centre Chowk where PTU leaders addressed them.

PTU central president Hafiz Ghulam Mohiyuddin said the chief minister had appointed an education secretary who used to insult teachers. He demanded of the chief minister that the secretary be removed immediately.

He also demanded a 100 per cent raise in wages, elimination of termination of matriculate qualified teachers, regular BS-14 scale for M.A. B.Ed. primary schoolteachers, BS-16 for elementary schoolteachers and BS-17 for secondary schoolteachers, health and life insurance and free college and university education for teachers' children.

MPA Engineer Javaid Akbar Dhaloon said that he would highlight the issue in the Punjab Assembly as well as bringing it into the notice of the chief minister and the president of Pakistan.

DCO Dr Ahmed Javaid Qazi assured the demonstrators that he would inform the chief secretary and the education secretary about their reservations.

Teacher leaders including Ahmed Ali Akhter, Sadia Ali and Lisan Ali Gujjar also spoke. Dawn

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Young doctors demand raise
Lahore: Newly-registered Young Doctors Association (YDA) Pakistan presented a new charter of demands to the government on Friday and has demanded a pay raise for all cadres of doctors.

The demands were presented during a press conference at PMA House, which was attended by Dr Rana Sohail, Dr Salman Kazmi, Dr Talha Sherwani, Dr Aslam Rao, Dr Qasim (ICH), Dr Khurram (SHL), Dr Asad (LGH), Dr Moazzam (JHL), Dr Khalid (GRH), Dr Moazzam and Dr Maryam (Mayo), Dr Irfan (JHL), Dr Bilal Pasha, Dr Ghulam Murtaza Baloch, Dr Khalid Sanawan (Nishtar), Dr Nabeel (Social Security), Dr Waseem (Social Security) and Dr Qamar (SZH).

They demanded that the pay of house officer be raised to Rs 35,000 per month, of MO/PG to Rs 80,000, SR to Rs 150,000, AP/District Specialist to Rs 250,000, Associate Professor and Professor to Rs 500,000 and a regular service structure with time scale promotion should be announced for doctors.

They said the doctors recently regularised should be given pay protection. Dr Rana Sohail on behalf of TDA announced an ultimatum to the Punjab government to give doctors a pay raise in the next budget; otherwise, they would be forced to take to the streets.

He also claimed that the Punjab government had given judiciary and police a 100 per cent pay raise but doctors were still left out and a medical officer was getting a meagre salary of Rs 19,000 including all allowances and a senior registrar's a salary of Rs 26,000 was less than the pay of a motorway police official.

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UET event for youths' role in emergency
Lahore: The Blood Donors' Society, UET Lahore, organised a three-day event in collaboration with the Red Crescent Punjab Section, comprising of following events.

The event was organised to make youths aware of their role in emergency.

Other target areas were: first aid training, disaster management training, formation of youth club, health and traffic education, blood donation and grouping.

The UET Blood Donors' Society is working for a long time but proper organising body was formed in 2008 with an aim to serve the humanity and to channelise the efforts of people working in this area.

The UET Blood Donors' Society not only arranges blood for the needy but it also considers its responsibility to create awareness amongst the masses about blood donation.

Hundreds of students enthusiastically participated in the activity. Vice Chancellor of U.E.T, Director of Red Crescent, Secretary of Red Crescent, Customer Safety Services Officer of Punjab Traffic Police also graced the occasion. The news

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