BIEK deputy controller held for ‘altering pre-medical results’

Karachi

The Board of Intermediate Education Karachi’s (BIEK) deputy controller examinations was arrested by officials of the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) late on Saturday night for alleged manipulation of the pre-medical group’s results. However, by Sunday evening, the official was released from custody as he had already been granted seven-day protective bail by the Sindh High Court.

Dabeer Ahmed was arrested late in the night following a raid in District Central. He was later moved to the ACE’s investigation unit but his lawyer managed to secure his release from the law enforcers' custody after providing the relevant bail documents.

According to ACE provincial chief Ghulam Qadir Thebo, Dabeer had disclosed useful information during initial questioning and the ACE chief said that other staffers of the BIEK were also being investigated for their involvement in tampering results.

Moreover, details of the deputy controller’s bank accounts were also being checked and that information with respect to the matter would be confirmed by Monday (today).

The ACE Sindh chairman said the department was investigating the manipulation for the past few days and that raids at relevant locations led them to some effective leads.

According to Thebo initial findings of the data seized from the BIEK’s IT department identified at least 94 cases of result manipulation of the pre-Medical group, while they were yet to go through records of the discipline of pre-Engineering.

Earlier, the ACE Sindh chairman while presiding over a meeting at his office had observed that no one was above the law and a stern action against those found violating it would be initiated.

Following a three-day raid - from August 10 to 12 - at the BIEK’s head office, Thebo was briefed by ACE officials of the 94 cases identified by them along with proper evidence. The candidates had either been cleared in papers they had failed, or were awarded 'A' and even 'A-1' grades after manipulation of the results.

He had also directed officials to get the public to help them in driving corrupt elements out of the province.

The BIEK office had on August 12 claimed that the ACE 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.

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.

During the raid the ACE teams were said to have confiscated multiple files and documents from the board’s IT section, which was completely sealed off as per the BIEK’s officers; an employee was also taken into custody.

 “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 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.”

However, on August 15, days after levelling allegations against ACE for disrupting the main data server of the BIEK, the exam controller, Muhammad Imran Khan Chisti, had announced that the server was functioning once again and all data was safe and secure.

He assured that no data was lost thanks to the engineers from IT section and that the BIEK had resumed finalising the pending results. He stated that the result which was supposed to be announced on August 12 but got delayed owing to a raid by ACE would be revealed soon.

“The board will not compromise on results and declaration will be made only after personal stratification,” he said.

Claiming that BIEK was cooperating with ACE, he said that the latter hadn’t forced the board to get any advantage.

He also mentioned that the deputy controller, Dabeer, wasn’t in the premises when ACE raided the office and since then the Board has no information of his whereabouts. However, he added that the BIEK had conducted a departmental inquiry about him and the results pertaining to Pre-Medical group would be announced later this month.