A Hindu boy has filed a petition in a Pakistani court challenging a rule that stipulates a student must have a certificate in Islamic studies to be eligible to appear for entrance tests to medical colleges. A division bench of the Sindh High Court admitted Sagar Ladhani's petition yesterday and provisionally allowed him to appear in an upcoming test for admission to an MBBS course. In his petition,Ladhani challenged the rule that students have to study "Islamiat" at the O-level to get an equivalence certificate from local education boards to appear in entrance tests for admission to medical colleges and institutions. The bench headed by Chief Justice Mushir Alam issued notices to the federal and provincial Education Secretaries,Inter-Board Committee of Chairmen,Dow University of Medical and Health Sciences,National Testing Service and provincial and federal law officers to submit their response to the petition. The court adjourned the matter till November 15 . Ladhani's lawyer Farough Naseem told the court that his client had completed his O and A-levels from the University of Cambridge through a local private schooling system. The subjects of religious studies prescribed in the O-level syllabus were "Islamic Religious Culture and Islamiat" for Muslim students and "Religious Studies and the Bible" for Christian students. There was no subject in the O-level curriculum for students belonging to other religious minorities,including Hindus,Naseem said. When Ladhani approached the Board of Intermediate Education to obtain an equivalence certificate,he was told it could be granted to him only if he had passed the religious studies course at the O-level. Naseem said Ladhani was unable to apply to the Dow University of Health Sciences as the education board declined to grant him the required equivalence certificate. The admission test would be conducted on October 30 and Ladhani was informed on October 4 that he should have taken ethics or religious studies with other mandatory subjects at the O-level for obtaining the equivalence certificate. The lawyer said the ethics examination was scheduled for May 2012 and if the condition was not relaxed,Ladhani would lose an academic year. He asked the court to direct authorities to allow Ladhani to sit for the admission test. The court,after hearing the federal and provincial law officers,allowed Ladhani to appear in the test provisionally.
