SHC appoints ‘officers of High Court’ to supervise SPSC exams

KARACHI: In a significant judgment, the Sindh High Court has appointed ‘officers of the High Court’ to supervise the process of competitive examination being conducted by the Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) to ensure merit and transparency.

The Combined Competitive Examination (CCE) of 2020 is scheduled to be held on November 10, 2020 (today) at Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, and Larkana centers.

The Sindh High Court, divisional bench, Hyderabad, on Monday, on the petition of Muhammad Ayub Panhwar regarding irregularities in the process of competitive examination of SPSC, with the consent of the counsels of the petitioner, SPSC, and Advocate General Sindh, ordered that the said examination should be held at Karachi under the supervision of official assignee of the Sindh High Court and in Hyderabad, Sukkur, and Larkana under the supervision of Additional Registrars of the concerned divisional and circuit benches of Sindh High Court. This was done in order to ensure merit and transparency in process of CCE-2020.

The SHC order further described that "Official Assignee and Additional Registrars of SHC" shall ensure that the entire process of CCE-2020 examination is held strictly in accordance with the law, relevant rules and regulations, and the directions given by the Supreme Court in the judgment of March 13, 2017, in suo-moto case of 18/2016.

The SHC issued notices to chief secretary Sindh and chairman Sindh Public Service Commission for the compliance of the said order of court.

Petitioner Muhammad Ayub Panhwar in his petition prayed the court that he had passed the written test of Combined Competitive Examination CCE held in the year of 2018, but he was declared failed by SPSC in the interview. He in his petition also pointed out other alleged irregularities and malpractices in the process of the above said examination on the part of SPSC management.

The Sindh High Court in the said order also directed the SPSC not to declare the final results of the said examination and ordered the entire record of examination be handed over to Nazir of the Court.

Petitioner Panhwar also prayed the court that the CCE-2020 to be held on November 10, 2020 (today) be suspended in view of the allegations made by him in the petition, as marks in the interview are not given to the candidates on merit and all reparations and selections are made by the SPSC according to their own will and likings. The SPSC management in their reply denied all the allegations and declared their process according to merit.

Apart from the order of the court, almost all the major examinations especially ‘Combined Competitive Examinations’ of SPSC also remained controversial, the issue of CCE of 2003-04 came under investigation of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and after the investigation of three years, NAB declared the process of examination as suspicious and declared the results of many candidates declared successful as illegal. The NAB filed a reference at the Accountability Court and the matter is still under proceeding.

On the other hand, the CCE-2016 was declared illegal by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.