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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (48879)	8/16/2005 7:48:19 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Respond to of 50167

Madrassa certificate invalid for LB polls: Passing English, Urdu, Pak Studies must for validity; apex courtexplains criteria in detailed judgment SC By Wajih Ahmad Sheikh LAHORE: The Supreme Court has declared that only those seminaries’ certificate-holders would be able to contest the forthcoming local bodies (LB) elections who have passed additional subjects of English, Urdu and Pakistan Studies. The Supreme Court on Tuesday laid down the criteria for the acceptance of certificates of Madaris through a detailed judgment issued by a three-member bench. The bench declared that these students having passed out from recognised religious institutions with an equivalence certificate must have to show proof of passing three compulsory subjects — English, Urdu and Pakistan Studies — from any of the Boards of Intermediate & Secondary Education. The full bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, dismissed two different petitions, observing that such candidates would not be deemed to qualify to contest the LB polls as Nazims and Naib Nazims. The Lahore High Court had earlier held that these three subjects are compulsory for seminary certificate-holders to be a candidate in the elections. The Supreme Court has upheld the same criteria. Moreover, the Peshawar High Court and the Balochistan High Court through their separate judgments had validated seminary certificates for contesting the LB elections. Earlier, Attorney-General Makhdoom Ali Khan told the court that all the certificates and degrees issued by seminaries were good for the purpose of teaching in the same institutions but such certificates did not qualify holders to contest LB polls for which matriculation is the minimum qualification. The attorney-general also referred to a meeting of the Inter-Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC), held on July 21, 2005, which had decided the same issue in terms of the certificates equivalence with the matriculation certificate. As for the statement by some petitioners that their certificates were equivalent to MA and BA degrees, he submitted that if they had not obtained a qualification equivalent to the matriculation certificate, their degrees held no legal ground to be treated as graduation or post-graduation degrees. The recognised seminaries, whose certificates and degrees were recognised by the Higher Education Commission, were five federal boards of the religious teachings representing, three sects and five private institutions, which the Higher Education Commission recognised. The Wafqul Madaris Arabia, Multan, the Tanzeemul Madaris (Ahal-i-Sunnat), Lahore, Wafaqul Madaris Al-Salfia (Ahal-i-Hadith), Faisalabad, the Wafaqul Madaris (Shia) and the Rabitatul Madaris-i-Islamia, Lahore, were the recognised boards for religious teachings. The private institutions, which the HEC also recognised were Jamia Islamia Minhajul Qur’aan and the Jamia Ashrafia in Lahore, the Jamia Taleemat-i-Islamia in Faisalabad, the Darul Uloom Muhammadia Ghausia in Sargodha and the Darul Uloom, Binouri Town, Karachi. Advocates Kh Haris Ahmad and Farooq Amjad Mir submitted that the then University Grants Commission had, through a notification on July 7, 2002, recognised two degrees issued in Shahadatul Aalmia equivalent to BA and MA. As a result, the candidates obtaining such degrees from any of the seminaries were accepted in general elections and 63 of them are still MNAs and another good number are members of the Senate and provincial assemblies. Subsequently, the Election Commission of Pakistan issued a notification which held the ground till August 11 this year when the commission notified educational conditions for Nazims and Naib Nazims endorsing the IBCC decision. They submitted that once the election schedule was announced on June 30, the Election Commission could not issue another administrative order. The August 11 notification was unlawful and should be struck down.