58 ‘failed’ students get into Aitchison College

LAHORE: Fifty-eight "failed" students made it to the prestigious Aitchison College in 2011, managing admission through the support of influential figures, mostly PPP bigwigs, The News has learnt.

Confidential documents in possession of The News reveal gross violation of merit in overall admissions last year as the then principal Principal Fakir Syed Aijazuddin not only accommodated candidates who failed in written examinations for admission, but also let four students in despite no vacant seats. This implies that the former principal robbed at least 58 eligible candidates of their right to ensure a better future in an institution, which had remained a symbol of excellence for over a century now.

According to the documents, 24 admissions were made in K-2, eight in K-3, three in K-4, five in K-5 (out of which two were on merit but there were no seats), nine in E-1 (out of which, one was on merit but there were no seats), four in E-2 , three in M-1, five in M-2 (out of which, one was on merit, but there were no seats) and one in C-1.

The procedure for admission to Classes K-1 to K-5 consists of written examination, interview (boys who reach the qualifying standard and a medical examination to verify age and health condition). The candidates are examined in English, Mathematics, Urdu and Reasoning for which 50 percent are the qualifying marks.

Similarly, procedure of admission to Prep School for Classes E1, E2 and M1 consists of examinations in English, Mathematics, Urdu, Science, a confidential report from the boy's pervious school, and an interview with the applicant accompanied by his parents while qualifying marks for written exams are also 50 percent.

Likewise procedure for admission to Senior School for Classes M2 (Grade-9) and Class C1 (Grade-10) consists of a written examination, a confidential report from the applicant's previous school and interview with the applicant accompanied by his parents.

According to sources, the Punjab government's indifferent attitude towards affairs of the Aitchison College also added a lot to this mess. It is important to mention here that Chief Secretary Punjab, Finance Secretary and Secretary Higher Education are ex-officio members of the Aitchison College's Board of Governors (BoG). The sources said these officials seldom attended the BoG meetings thus providing a good opportunity to other stakeholders to take advantage of their absence.

Meanwhile, sources in the Punjab government confirmed this negligence on the part of the ex-officio members, which, according to them, had harmed the reputation of this historic institution.

Contrary to its admissions policy, Aitchison College admitted even those students who performed extremely poorly in the written examination. There were those who got just 2.8 marks, 3.9 marks and 4.7 marks out of a total 50 marks and were ranked much below others who appeared in the written exam and were admitted.

The students who were admitted to Class K-2 in sheer violation of merit are (full names not being given): Abdullah s/o Jamil (Registration No 07910). He had secured just 3.9 marks in written exam and was ranked 457 (out of 478). Roshan s/o Shahjahan (Registration No. 06975) had secured 19.3 marks and was ranked 394 (out of 478). Ali s/o Ahmed (Registration No. 07420) had secured 36.7 marks and was ranked 321 (out of 478). Hassan s/o Saleem (Registration No. 07849) had 30.7 marks and ranking 348 (out of 478). Ahmed s/o Afzal (Registration No. 07475) had 40.3 marks and ranking 296 (out of 478). Faris s/o Kamran (Registration No. 06968) had 46.6 marks and ranking 243 (out of 478). Mustafa s/o Saif (Registration No. 06940) secured 40.6 marks and ranked 294 (out of 478). Rahmat s/o Suhail (Registration No. 07145) had 42.9 marks and ranking 274 (out of 478). Zohaib s/o Salman (Registration No. 07361) had 38.8 marks and ranking 305 (out of 478). Raayan s/o Waqas (Registration No. 07033) had 24 marks and ranking 376 (out of 478). The student was also assessed as a very slow child. Moeed s/o Asim (Registration No. 07288) had just 12.7 marks ranking 425 (out of 478). Ali s/o Jamal (Registration No. 6990) had 45 marks and ranking 259 (out of 478). Haider s/o Reza (Registration No. 07136) had 34.6 marks and ranking 330 (out of 478). Mustafa s/o Shafiq (Registration No. 06890) had 49.7 marks and ranking 231 (out of 478). Bilal s/o Ali (Registration No. 06832) had 32.9 marks and ranking 341 (out of 478). Kabir s/o Sadiq (Registration No. 07200) had 42.6 marks and ranking 278 (out of 478). Hassan s/o Shakil (Registration No. 07544) had 30.3 marks and ranking 350 (out of 478). Khizar s/o Mohsin (Registration No. 07322) had 30.2 marks and ranking 351 (out of 478). Saif s/o Zulfiqar (Registration No.07720) had just 8.6 marks and ranking 441 (out of 478). Aftab s/o Asif (Registration No. 06661) had 44.3 marks and ranking 263 (out of 478). Abdullah (Registration No. 07052) had 27.7 marks and ranking 360 (out of 478). Ayaan s/o Tariq (Registration No. 07147) had 49.5 marks and ranking 232 (out of 478). Omer (Registration No. 07460) had 11.3 marks and ranking 429 (out of 478) and Afraz s/o Arif had just 4.7 marks and ranked 452 (out of 478)

The students who were admitted to Class K-3 are: Moazzam s/o Tariq (Registration No. 06669) had 20.2 marks and ranking 95 (out of 130). Amaan s/o Ali (Registration No. 07443) had 32.1 marks and ranking 60 (out of 130). Mustafa s/o Zulqarnain (Registration No. 06960) had 36 marks and ranking 48 (out of 130). Anas s/o Azhar (Registration No. 07074) had 23 marks ranking 87 (out of 130). Ali s/o Babar (Registration No. 07458) had 26.5 marks and ranking 75 (out of 130). Hamza s/o Nauman (Registration No. 07737) had 23.7 marks and ranking 85 (out of 130). Raheemullah s/o Ashfaq (Registration No. 07038) had 39.4 marks ranking 36 (out of 130). Abdullah s/o Ahmad (Registration No. 07251) had 42.3 marks and ranking 28 (out of 130).

The students who were admitted to Class K-4 are: Ibrahim s/o Kamran (Registration No. 07411) had only 2.8 marking and ranking 84 (out of 86). Shahzeb s/o Salman (Registration No. 06682) had 48.5 marks and ranking 13 (out of 86). Daniyal s/o Farooq (Registration No. 06822) had 42.2 marks and ranking 21 (out of 86).

The students who were admitted to Class K-5 include Hassan s/o Farooq (Registration No. 07510) had 22.4 marks and ranking 83 (out of 100). Haris s/o Yasin (Registration No. 07205) had 41 marks and ranking 36 (out of 100). Ahmed s/o Altaf (Registration No. 068237) had just 12.3 marks ranking 96 (out of 100).

The students who were admitted to Class E-1 are: Asadullah s/o Ijaz (Registration No. 6907) had 33.8 marks and ranking 56 (out of 103). Irzam s/o Asif (Registration No. 6835) had 48.9 marks and ranking 19 (out of 103). Husnain s/o Khurram (Registration No. 6708) had 41 marks and ranking 36 (out of 103) and Araib s/o Kashif (Registration No. 6921) had 24.3 marks and ranking 80 (out of 103). Ammar s/o Alam (Registration No. 7439) had 30.4 marks and ranking 68 (out of 103). Murtaza s/o Asif (Registration No. 6941) had 49.6 marks and ranking 18 (out of 103) and Izn s/o Tariq (Registration No. 7697) had 27.5 marks and ranking 74 (out of 103). Hamza s/o Tahir (Registration No. 7558) had 35 marks and ranking 21 (out of 103).

The students who were admitted to Class E-2 include Mubeen s/o Zamrak had just 18.5 marks and ranking 64 (out of 76). Hunain s/o Ibrahim (Registration No. 7093) had 28 marks and ranking 41 (out of 76). Raffay s/o Akhtar (Registration No. 7429) had 41 marks and ranking 18 (out of 76). Hamza s/o Bakhtiar (Registration No. 7853) had only 19.6 marks and ranking 58 (out of 76).

The students who were admitted to Class M-1 include Fateh s/o Asim (Registration No. 7672) had 21.9 marks and ranking 57 (out of 75). The candidate had also weak result in previous school. Zohaib s/o Tahir (Registration No. 7339) had 34.4 marks and ranking 31 (out of 75). Aziz s/o Mahboob (Registration No. 06755) had 49.1 marks and ranking 13 (out of 75).

The students who were admitted to Class M-2 include Hayat s/o Asim (Registration No. 07670) had just 17 marks. Huzaim s/o Ibrahim (Registration No. 07094) had 45 marks. Saifullah s/o Shujah (Registration No.07589) had 38 marks. Daud s/o Tahir (Registration No. 07459) had 33 marks.

The student who were admitted to Class C-1 include Umer s/o Asad (Registration No. 07487) had 45 marks.

The students who met the merit didn't stand a chance as there were no vacancies, included Muhammad Ali Bhoon s/o Muhammad Ahsan Bhoon (Registration No. 06686) had 56.2 marks and ranking 10 (out of 100) and Arij Javaid s/o Rana Javaid Umar (Registration No. 07659) had also 58.8 marks and ranking 8 (out of 100) in K-5.

In E-1 Syed Nadir Hussain (Registration No. 07822) had 53 marks and ranking 14 (out of 103) while in M-2 Abdullah Qaiser Warriach s/o Qaiser Shabbir Warriach (Registration No. 07816) had 52 marks.

Most interesting is the manner in which these admissions were carried out. That is, the people involved in this social crime didn't bother a bit about the bad exposure in the event these cases leaked out. The supporters of these students made requests through letters, phone-calls and even SMS. The Governor House also got involved in these admissions openly, with a good number "added by the governor."

The influentials whose names have been attributed to the admissions in the record are: President of Pakistan, Prime Minister, sister and brother-in-law of the President, Nawab Muhammad Aslam Khan Raisani Chief Minister Balochistan, Ch Ahmad Mukhtar Federal Minister for Defence, Raja Pervez Ashraf, MNA, NA-51, Rawalpindi (PPP)/ Federal Minister for Water & Power, Mir Changez Khan Jamali Federal Minister for S&T, Ch Imtiaz Safdar Warraich President PPP Punjab/ MNA NA-98, Gujranwala, Malik Nawab Sher Waseer, MNA, NA-76, Faisalabad (PPP), political secretary to President Zardari Ms Rukhsana Bangash, Muhammad Ijaz Virk (PPPP) MNA NA-83, Faisalabad, Khalid Ahmed Khan Kharal (PPP), MNA Ghulam Farid Kathia NA-161 Sahiwal, Rana Muhammad Farooq Saeed Khan MNA, NA-79, Faisalabad (PPP), Tanvir Ashraf Kaira MPA PP-112, Gujrat (PPP)/ Ex-Minister Finance Punjab, Rai Muhammad Shahjahan Khan (PPPP), MPA PP-54, Faisalabad, Syed Abrar Hussain Shah, MPA PP-173, Nankana Sahib, PP-172, Mohammad Jamil Shah MPA PP-218, Khanewal (PPP), Ms Ruqia Khanam Soomro, MPA, PSW-136, Sindh/ President, PPP Sindh (Women Wing), Mehr Irshad Ahmad Khan Sial, MPA, PPP Muzaffargarh PP-254/ Chairman Standing Committee on Culture & Youth Affairs, Muhammad Shujah Khan, Minister for Food, KP, Malik Mohammad Ahmed Khan ex-MPA/ Old Aitchisonian, Hashaam Riaz Sheikh, member BoG of Aitchison College, Fazal Palejo, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, Irfan Alvi Media Consultant to Governor, Naurez Shakoor ex-MNA, Mr Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry, former Chief Justice of LHC, Tanvir Butt, Political Advisor to Governor, Corps Headquarters, Mian Misbah ur Rehman, Sheikh Khadim, Arslan Sheikh, Syed Ahmad Saeed Kirmani, Shaikh Allauddin MPA, Mr Waqar, friend of ex-Governor, Tariq Bashir Cheema, Qazi Humayun Fareed, Dean, Consular Corps Punjab Lahore, Ahsan Bhoon, advocate, former Judge Lahore High Court, Ms Zill-e-Huma, D.G Rangers, Mian Muhammad Ahmad Sethi, Director, Naimatullah Steel Works, Lahore, Mian Ghulam Muhammad Ahmed Khan Maneka ex-Federal Minister, Justice (r) Faqir Muhammad Khokhar former Judge Supreme Court of Pakistan, Chairman WAPDA, Riaz Malik, Advocate Ahwar Tufail Warriach, President PLF Gujranwala, Engineer Malik Bilal Ahmad, MPA, D.G Forest, Begum Governor Punjab, Khurram Latif Khosa, Shahbaz Khosa, Ms Zareen Khosa, Balakh Sher Khosa, Barrister Sehr Khosa, Balakh Sher Khosa, and Mrs Javeria with reference of Ms Governor and others.

It is pertinent to mention here that during the tenure of Fakir Syed Aijazuddin who joined Aitchison College as principal on December 29, 2008, a substantial increase in overall strength of students was witnessed in the college and the hockey ground of the college was used for construction of new classrooms to "accommodate" the ever-growing number of admissions.

An alarming trend was witnessed in student intake in K-2 and K-3 over the past two years. As many as 144 admissions were made in K-2 in 2009 while 225 in 2010. Similarly 07 admissions were made in 2009 in K-3 and 93 in 2010. K-2 now has around 16 sections.

The process of promotion of these extra students in K-2 and K-3 would lead to another problem of generating more rooms for each class every next year. This would require huge funds for the construction apart from the acquisition of land for the purpose. This extra land could only be acquired from the available grounds on the premises. In such an eventuality the college management will have to make serious compromises vis-a-vis activities of sports for which the college is know all over the country.

When contacted, Fakir Syed Aijazuddin said he had nothing to do with the admissions. When reminded that he was the principal at the time the admissions were made he said "You should contact the incumbent principal as he has all the record now." Without saying anything further he disconnected the call.

However, when contacted over his cell phone, Prof Dr Muhammad Hafeez, who joined Aitchison College as principal in March 2012, did not comment on the 2011 admissions, saying one should have a futuristic approach instead of indulging in the past. He, however, confirmed it was mandatory to qualify in the written exam.

Answering a question as to how many admissions in total would be made this year, Dr Hafeez expressed his ignorance saying he had recently joined the college and was still in the learning process.

Since the principal is custodian of the college's record this correspondent tried to meet Prof Dr Muhammad Hafeez in his office to show him the documents available with The News to seek his point of view in detail but to no avail.

A detailed letter as well an email mentioning gross violation in admissions, with an example, was also sent to him to respond which too went unanswered. Afterwards the principal neither received phone calls nor replied to the SMS’s of this reporter.

The News provided a fair opportunity to the administration of the college to share its point of view but to no avail.

Talking to The News Senator Muhammad Mohsin Khan Leghari, a distinguished Aitchisonian, also a member of the Aitchison College's Board of Governors, said the former principal never discussed admission matters with the board members. He said the former principal had focused on revenue generation for the college owing to which he was all for maximum admissions.

Leghari further said that he personally believed that the character of the Aitchison College had changed. "Its boarding school used to provide a good opportunity to students from across the country to interact and develop a close relationship", he said adding, "But, unfortunately, the once premier institution has become an ordinary school now."

He also expressed displeasure over using the college's hockey ground for construction of new block saying sports and games were as important in development of a student's character and personality as grades.

Secretary Higher Education Punjab, ex-officio member of the BoG, said he did not know about his predecessors but ever since he joined the department some months ago he attended almost four or five board meetings. He also expressed his ignorance over out-of-merit admissions.

Spokesperson of the Governor House told The News that the governor has got no role in the admission process. He said that as President of the BoG, the governor does have an advisory role and shares input wherever required but, primarily, it is the principal's job to oversee the admission process and ensure transparency.

He said that despite being head of the BoG the governor is in no position to influence the process of admission in such a prestigious institution in the presence of other noted and respected members of the BoG. He added the decisions of the college were made by the BoG and not just the BoG's president alone.

Another source said noted personalities including public office holders often face pressure from relations or constituents for admissions, and they refer the same to the authority concerned as a routine. Adherence to merit and policy was the responsibility of the authority.