Ex-AG steps in to defend Farah Dogar

ISLAMABAD - Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday deferred till Thursday the hearing of a legal challenge to the award of additional marks to Farah Hameed Dogar, the daughter of Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar.
A single bench of IHC, chaired by Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Aslam, adjourned the hearing of the issue after being informed that Barrister M Javed Iqbal Jaffree, the counsel for petitioner Mohammad Iftikhar Hussain Rajpoot, is presently abroad and seeks adjournment.
Earlier, Farah Hameed Dogar's counsel Malik Muhammad Qayyum stated that the issue has been blown out of proportions without any solid evidence against his client.
Qayyum, the former attorney general of Pakistan, further argued that the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary (FBISE) was fully competent to re-check and re-assess the marks of any candidates who seeks the review.
The learned counsel also pleaded that the apex court had annulled the stipulation on reassessment of marks through its decision in 2004.
At one stage of the proceedings, IHC Chief Justice offered Malik Muhammad Qayyum that he could witness the sealed record of Farrah Dogar's papers and the re-checking if desired so.
This record is presently sealed and intact in the custody of the court after it was proposed that a safe custody of these official documents would save them from any tempering.
Muhammad Azam Khan Sultanpuri, President Falah-e-Insaniyat, who has separately challenged the award of the additional marks, also remained present before the court during the proceedings. Later, the proceedings were adjourned till Thursday.
In his response to the legal challenge, Former Chairman FBISE, Commodore (Retd) Shamshad had vehemently defended the award of the additional marks to Farah Hameed Dogar.
Through a reply, submitted before the court a few days ago, Shamshad had claimed that no violation of rules or laws took place in the whole exercise of re-checking of the papers.
In para-wise reply, filed through Raja Abdul Rehman Advocate, Shamshad also stated that the re-modeling of examination system of FBISE through introduction of concept-based question papers intends to encourage learning and selective study.
As many as 36,171 students appeared in the HSSC Part-II examination and 28,455 emerged successful. In pre-medical group, 7,384 students appeared out of which 6,601, including Farah Hameed Dogar, passed the examination and got 640 marks out of 1100 (58.18 per cent- Grade-C), he added.
Shamshad said according to initial marking, fifteen answer books were marked by every sub-examiner and then reassessed by head-examiners as test installment.
Under this practice thousand of answer books for annual examination, 2008 had been re-examined and re-assessed. A total of 1,093 students including Farah Hameed Dogar applied for re-checking of her four papers on August 20, followed by two others on August 29, after showing concerns over the award of marks.
Respective head-examiners re-assessed the answer books and awarded nine more marks in English, five in Urdu, six in Physics and one additional mark in Biology while making no changes in subjects of Chemistry and Pakistan Studies, he said.