Lahore, A judicial commission examining the ambiguities in messed-up intermediate results on Thursday rejected the argument of former IT consultant of Punjab’s education boards Dr Majid Naeem when he tried to criticise media’s role during the result episode.   

While giving his statement to the commission, Dr Naeem said every year education boards commit errors in results but this year the media scandalised the matter. He argued if there had been any serious problem with the computerised system, the matriculation results would not have been compiled with only minor or routine errors.

Commission member Justice Chaudhry Shahid Saeed, however, snubbed him and said addressing Dr Naeem: “You think the media should have stayed idle even when students were on roads and boards’ properties were set on fire.” The judge observed that the media played its due role and tried its best to show the issue in true colours. 

The commission, however, observed that the statements of all education boards’ heads suggested that Dr Naeem was given unlimited powers and nobody dared to even point out flaws in the system. Dr Naeem told the commission that he had wanted three days from the boards’ heads to remove the errors in the result but his offer was not considered. The commission asked the former consultant to file his final statement, observing that his appearance in the court was not necessary on every hearing. 

Punjab Information Technology Board Chairman Umar Saif Khurram and director General Naeem Waqar Qureshi, Lahore BISE’s IT in charge Mian Tariq Mahmood and controller examinations Anwar Ahmad also recorded their statements. Lahore board’s store superintendent Muhammad Tariq presented the record of equipment purchased for the computerisation project.

Mr Khurram agreed to commission’s argument that each education board should have introduced its individual computerised system and the old manual system should have also been run parallel to the new. He said the boards had not the required manpower to apply and effectively run the new system.