BIEK slams ACE raids, says delay in results risking future of students

ACE vacates premises, claims having identified 94 cases of result tampering

Karachi

The three-day raid of the anti-corruption establishment (ACE) at the Board of Intermediate Education and Karachi’s (BIEK) office had rendered it impossible for the board to declare results in accordance with higher education institutes’ admission deadlines, and the office was also at risk of losing 20 years worth of data, senior officials of the board claimed on Thursday.

BIEK chairman, Mohammad Akhter Ghori, and controller examinations, Imran Khan Chishti, at a press conference held at the board office alleged that the BIEK’s computer server was down due to ACE officials’ mishandling and chances were high that all data saved on it would collapse.

If the board’s three days had not been wasted, it would have announced results of pre-medical group on August 12, the officials claimed.

They also cried hoarse over the ACE officials’ alleged manhandling of the BIEK’s low-ranking staff during the three days that it had been there.

“Weapons were used to terrify BIEK employees, while a wife of one of the staffers was admitted to the hospital due to misbehaviour of some ACE staff.

“They confiscated mobile phones of board office employees and did not allow several staffers to leave the premises,” Ghori stated.

The chairman further said that if the ACE had any information regarding corruption at the BIEK, it should have ideally contacted him or controller examination directly. “The BIEK has zero tolerance for corruption, any officer found involved would have been personally handed over to the ACE.”

Declaring ACE’s allegations of the board tempering results groundless, Ghori stated that it could not have tempered with the result since they were yet to be prepared.

He maintained that he had informed the competent authority of the investigative agency not informing him of the raid, through a letter on Wednesday evening.

“The ACE had chosen an inappropriate time and disturbed the whole process of result preparation.

“If they had any information and did not want to share it with us, then they should have waited till the results were declared and could in the meanwhile have gathered evidence to support their claims.”

Chishti while addressing the presser said the provisional chief minister had directed to delay the result till the situation normalised to avoid unnecessary mistakes in the final results.

The answer sheets have been mixed up, the serve has been damaged; all our efforts to prepare results have been washed away by the ACE.”

If the board was really taking money to produce wrongful results then the pass percentages would have been calculated to be between 80 to 90 percent and not 50 to 55 percent, Chisthi added.

One employee of the BIEK was reported to have been detained by the ACE while the rest were being threatened to be arrested but nobody knows who the main culprit is, the controller examination said.

The future of students is at risk but the ACE was not realising the gravity of the situation and not co-operating with the board despite the latter having extended full support to the investigation team.”

What ACE claims

Enquiries and Anti- Corruption Establishment chairman Ghulam Qadir Thebo while presiding over a meeting at his office on Thursday observed that no one was above the law and strict action would be initiation against officer reported to be involved in corruption.

Although having vacated the BIEK premises, Thebo while being briefed over recent raids was told that 94 cases of corruption were, along with proper evidence, identified at the BIEK.

The candidates had either been passed or awarded 'A' and even 'A-1' grades after manipulating the results.

He was further informed that an FIR in this regard was lodged and an employee namely, Adil, working on daily wages was arrested.

Appreciating the officers over carrying out raid based on intelligence at the offices of BIEK and the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), the ACE chairman observed that, "Sindh anti-corruption department is committed to eliminating corruption from every government institute."

He further directed the officials to get the public’s help in driving corrupt elements out of the province.