LHC reserves verdict over plea challenging Quota system for CSS exams

Lahore: The chief Justice of Lahore High Court (LHC) Syed Mansoor Ali Shah on Thursday asked for the arguments on the maintainability of the plea challenging the quota system for Central Superior Service (CSS) exams and requesting for the open merit so that every eligible candidate could get posting. 

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Hassan Shah and a large number of other students had filed petitions and submitted that a quota was allocated for the provinces under Article 47 of the Constitution for the time period of 40 years.  The time limit of 40-year had passed however the quota was still there for employment of officers for CSS.  

Large number of candidates could not get posting because of the quota system. They called it as discrimination.

The aspirants requested that quota system be reserve and government be ordered to conduct open merit base exams for CSS. 

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Afterwards, the court issued notices to all provinces and postponed that hearing till March 9^th (Thursday).

On the day of hearing, the law officers on behalf of Sindh, KPK and Balochistan submitted their replies saying the petitions fell under the authority of the Supreme Court rather than Lahore High Court.

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They moreover said that decision of Lahore High Court will take the right of applicants from other provinces in case of decision against the quota system on the filed applications. 

They appealed the Lahore High Court to reject the petitions for being non-maintainable.

After hearing both sides, LHC Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah reserved the final verdict on the maintainability of the petitions.