LHC restores Ahmadi student’s admission

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has set aside a decision of the Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) Multan whereby the admission of a student belonging to the Ahmadi community was cancelled.

Allowing a petition of Umar Tahir Taimur who had got admission on the minority quota, Justice Muhammad Shan Gul directed the BZU vice chancellor to inquire into the matter. In his verdict, the judge ruled that the impugned decision depicts scant regard for students as it is also a conscious disregard for the minority rights. “It amounts to persecuting the already persecuted,” observed Justice Gul.

The petitioner’s counsel Tahir Mahmood had argued that his client got admission to the Faculty of Pharmacy on the minority quota since he was an Ahmadi and deposited necessary dues on September 22, 2021.

The counsel said the university later suspended the admission of the petitioner without giving him an opportunity of hearing. BZU legal advisor Ali Siddiqui stated that apparently there was no reason for the order under challenge to have been passed.

The judge observed it is also true that the order under challenge cannot be allowed to stand for at least two obvious reasons. First, it treated the petitioner as an object and did not treat him with the requisite dignity required in terms of Article 14 of the Constitution. Second, the impugned order manifestly violated Article 4 and 10-A of the Constitution. The judge said the vice chancellor should inquire into the matter and find out as to why the petitioner has been picked on and why the petitioner has been singled out for such callous and insensitive treatment.