LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) suspended an order to hold Central Superior Services (CSS) exams in Urdu next year on Wednesday.
Chief Justice Mansoor Ali Shah heard an appeal filed by the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) against an earlier decision of the LHC to hold the CSS exams in Urdu.
The lawyer for FPSC informed the court that the commission was not prepared to immediately hold the exam in Urdu. He added that 43 of the 51 CSS exam subjects were not in Urdu.
In his remarks, the LHC chief justice said that students complete their graduation in English so how can they be expected to give the CSS exam in Urdu.
In February, the LHC directed the FPSC to conduct the CSS examinations 2018 in Urdu. Justice Atir Mahmood passed this direction on a petition of Advocate Saifur Rehman who had applied for CSS Examinations 2017 and objected that the FPSC advertisement was silent about the language in which the examination would be held. He prayed to the court to order the commission to conduct the examinations in Urdu language as directed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2015.
The judge, however, turned down his plea to hold the current year examinations in Urdu due to paucity of time. The commission’s counsel told the court that arrangements were being made for transfer from English to Urdu and a committee had been formed to make recommendations in this regard. He said the issue had also been taken up with the Higher Education Commission.
