Scuffle erupts at exam centre as govt official’s daughter caught cheating

Karachi
An attempt by the inspection team of Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) to try and draw out three female candidates whom they suspected to be cheating turned into an armed altercation when the guards of one of the students resorted to aerial firing at Government Girls’ Higher Secondary School in Murad Memon Goth, Malir.
The four-member inspection team had gone to the exam centre where the Higher Secondary School Certificate was taking place for botany, when they found that three female students had marked their attendance but were missing from the exam center, said Dr Muhammad Wakil Ahmed, the head of the BIEK delegation which visited the school.
He said the girls were missing along with their answer sheets and papers. “When asked the exam centre staff about them they kept evading the matter. The principal of the school also claimed to know nothing of the matter,” he said.
He said when the inspection team was finally able to catch the girls red-handed and lodge cases of unfair means against them, the invigilation staff at the school revealed that one of the students was the daughter of Assistant Commissioner Malir and warned the BIEK staff of dire consequences.
The girls were identified as Musarrat Shaheen, daughter of Malir assistant commissioner, Paras Altaf Hussain Shah and Amna Ghazala Yousuf.
In the meantime, said Dr Ahmed, Assistant Commissioner Muhammad Yousuf Abbasi also reached at the center with his security guards and tried to persuade us to ignore the matter. The head of inspection team claimed that the guards of assistant commissioner made the BIEK team stay at the exam centre forcibly while ‘asking’ them to withdraw the cases.
However, he said, the members of the inspection team refused to entertain the offer and the argument
The team informed the BIEK controller examination Mohammad Imran Khan Chishti.
“But when I got at the exam centre the miscreants had fled the scene and the police personnel deployed for security were also missing,” said Chishti.
He said the inspection team has submitted strong evidence against all three candidates and said a formal inquiry will be conducted into the matter.
The invigilation staff of the high school was also relieved of their duties, he said.
The BIEK chairman Prof Anwar Ahmed Zai wrote to Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui to complain about the behaviour of the assistant commissioner and harassment at his behest. It was learnt that the commissioner has asked the deputy commissioner Malir to probe the matter.