Student on UK deportation list returns Home

London: Tariqur Rehman, one of the 10 Pakistani students arrested on suspicion of being involved in plotting terrorist activities in the UK and then released for want of actionable evidence but facing deportation orders on national security grounds, returned home on Wednesday after authorities withdrew his deportation orders.

"Now he carries no 'terror' stigma any more and we assume that the Pakistani authorities too would have no cause to detain him on his arrival for interrogation," one of the solicitors defending the students said. Meanwhile, bail applications of other nine Pakistani students in appeal against their deportation orders are likely to get a positive boost when they come up for hearing on July 27 by a landmark ruling on Wednesday by the law lords.

The ruling is said to have dealt a major blow to the government's controversial use of 'control orders' on terror suspects. The ruling said that reliance on secret evidence denies the suspects a fair trial.

The nine-judge panel led by Lord Philips of Worth Matravers, the senior law lord, upheld a challenge on behalf of three men (not among the detained Pakistani students) on 'control orders'.

Control orders imposed on individual suspects by the home secretary can include home curfews of up to 16 hours a day, a ban on travelling abroad, the approval of all visitors by the Home Office, monitoring of all phone calls, and bans on using the internet and mobile phones.

The orders have not been quashed but the law lords have ordered that the cases be heard again.

The three had argued that the refusal to disclose even the "gist" of the evidence against them denied them a fair trial under the Human Rights Act.

In the ruling, Lord Philips said: "A trial procedure can never be considered fair if a party to it is kept in ignorance of the case against him."

Lord Hope said "the slow creep of complacency must be resisted" and that to protect the rule of law, courts must insist the person affected be told what was alleged against him.

These observations are likely to help the solicitors defending the Pakistani students facing deportation orders as in their cases as well the authorities are not willing to disclose what is alleged against them.

A report in The Guardian on Wednesday quoted Home Secretary Alan Johnson as saying that the judgment was extremely disappointing. "Protecting the public is my top priority and this judgment makes that task harder," he said. "Nevertheless, the government will continue to take all steps we can to manage the threat presented by terrorism." Dawn

Education Policy Draft Rejected Now

Draft education policy rejected by federal cabinet
Islamabad, June 11: The federal cabinet has rejected the new National Education Policy and directed the Ministry of Education to re-submit fresh proposals after seeking suggestions from educationists.

Official sources said on Wednesday that the cabinet in a special meeting chaired by Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani opined that the new education policy does not represent the concerned quarters, including educationists, intellectuals, the provincial government and teachers' unions, which was mandatory for it.

According to sources, the Ministry of Education tabled the same proposals prepared by former education minister Ahsan Iqbal.

While rejecting the draft of education policy, the cabinet has directed the education ministry to seek recommendations of the concerned quarters to make it more effective.

Sources said that the new policy draft would take another two to three months after which it would be tabled before the cabinet for approval.

There is a chance that the new education policy would be announced after four to five months, sources said.

Similarly, recommendation draft of the policy also did not contain comments of the chief ministers of all the four provinces, which was a mandatory obligation.

Commenting over the issue, Ministry of Education Spokesman Aamir Raza confirmed the report and the reasons behind rejection of the draft of the new education policy by the cabinet. He said as per directions of the cabinet, the ministry would approach the related educationists, union and associations representatives and all the four provincial heads of the respective education departments. "Till then the old system would be followed in all educational institutions including colleges and schools at federal and provincial levels," he added. The News

BSEK Notification

BSEK notification
The Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) has asked those candidates who were provisionally allowed to appear in the SSC-II annual examinations-2009 (science and general groups) to submit the required documents latest by June 15 at the board's office in order to avoid withholding of their results.