LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) while expressing displeasure over facts concealment regarding alleged irregularities in the PhD admissions at Institute of Communication Studies (ICS) has issued notice to the four candidates.
In their petition, the four petitioners who had applied for PhD Communication Studies at ICS through their counsel Mian Bilal Bashir advocate had submitted before LHC Justice Ayesha A Malik that due to negligence of PU officials, their classes had not been started as per schedule given in the university calendar and chalan forms were not being issued to them. They submitted that last year, PhD admissions at ICS were cancelled ‘without any reason’ while this year there were apprehensions that another year of theirs would be wasted. During the hearing of the case, another PhD candidate through his counsel Syed Shahbaz Bukhari advocate submitted before the court that LHC has already issued directions in the matter which the students had deliberately concealed from the court.
Mr Bukhari submitted that last year, PhD admissions at ICS were cancelled due to malpractices and irregularities in the whole admission process as failed candidates were declared as passed illegally. He submitted that there were serious malpractices in the evaluation process of answer books and LHC Justice Shahid Jamil Khan on September 08, 2017 had passed an order in the said case. In the light of the LHC order, he argued, PU had constituted an inquiry committee to probe into the matter. However, he submitted, the petitioners had deliberately concealed this fact from the High Court. He said that the petitioners had given the impression to the court that they were the successful candidates and there was a matter of commencement of classes only. He said that the petitioners had not been declared successful in the whole admission process as final merit list was yet to be displayed by the administration.
Justice Ayesha A Malik asked Mr Bukhari that how could he prove that the four candidates had deliberately concealed facts from the court. Mr Bukhari submitted that the four candidates had submitted applications to PU vice chancellor on September 23, 2017 and Punjab governor/ Punjab University chancellor on September 26, 2017 in which they have mentioned about the LHC orders dated 08-09-2017 and other related matters in detail. Justice Ayesha A Malik expressed serious displeasure over deliberate concealment of facts and directed the petitioners to submit their written reply on deliberate concealment of facts in the next hearing. PU’s legal advisor sought time from the court to submit report and parawise comments. The LHC adjourned the hearing till November 14.