Candidates decry ‘nepotism’ in SPSC hiring

The candidates who appeared in the recruitment exams conducted by Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) for appointment against the seats of lecturers in the government colleges have complained of nepotism and a lack of merit in the results.

The candidates, who gathered outside Hyderabad Press Club on Sunday to protest, alleged that the SPSC has also violated the orders of the supreme court and the Sindh high court with regard to fairness in the conduct of the exams. The protesters led by Advocate Khalid Saleh, Ram Odh, Hussain Bux Chandio, Yousuf Sindhi and Rasheed Azad chanted slogans like 'no to corruption and nepotism in SPSC' and 'we want merit, transparency and justice'.

Saleh informed that the SPSC conducted the interviews of the eligible candidates for recruitment of lecturers for the subjects including English, Sindhi, political science, economics and others subjects from January to March this year. He and other protesters blamed the commission for failing to ensure transparency in the exams. Saleh said the commission neither disclosed scores of the candidates on its website nor the SHC's order concerning the marking policy was implemented.

"In some interviews, instead of a team just one person conducted the interviews," he claimed. Chandio claimed that even some gold medalist and master of philosophy (MPhil) qualified candidates have not been selected by the SPSC for the lecturer jobs. He also alleged that many relatives of the employees of the SPSC have been named in the merit list of the qualified candidates.

The protesters said the interview results for the English subject were declared after many days' delay on March 31 even though the commission was supposed to declare the results on the next day. They warned the SPSC that if it did not conduct the interviews again purely on the basis of merit, they will take the issue to the Sindh High Court. The SHC has already annulled the Combined Competitive Examination (CCE), 2020, results of the exams which were conducted by the SPSC through its February 23 order.

The court has directed the commission to conduct those CCE-2020 exams again.