NED VC to lead inquiry into intermediate results in Karachi

The decision was made in a committee meeting on Wednesday, chaired by Sindh Education Minister Sardar Shah

Listen to article

Sindh assembly committee, consisting of members from the provincial assembly, has assigned the inquiry into the low pass ratio in the first year of the Intermediate Board Karachi to the Vice Chancellor of NED University, Professor Dr Soroush Lodhi.

Dr Lodhi will investigate the matter and submit a report to the assembly committee by February 12. The decision was made in a meeting of the committee held on Wednesday, chaired by Sindh Education Minister Sardar Shah.

Following last year’s precedent, the committee will again include Institute of Business Administration Karachi Director Dr Akbar Zaidi, Sindh Higher Education Commission Secretary Moen Siddiqi, and the Controller of NED. A notification for the formation of the committee will be issued soon.

This issue had emerged last year during the caretaker government of Sindh, when then-Caretaker Chief Minister Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar had tasked the same committee with the inquiry.

Based on their recommendation, students who had failed in the first year were granted grace marks to pass. This year, the same committee under Dr Soroush Lodhi’s convenorship has been entrusted with the inquiry.

During the meeting, Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) Chairman Professor Sharaf Ali Shah, informed the committee that a special board committee, composed of college professors, had assessed thousands of answer sheets and found no significant errors in the results.

Furthermore, a statement issued in this regard mentioned that objections to the results will be checked through a third-party method, and a fact-checking committee will be established for this purpose.

During the session, details of last year’s inquiry into the board’s results were also presented. The inquiry identified flaws and technical issues within the board’s processes.

According to the statement, Dr Lodhi reported that discrepancies were found between assessment and tabulation, and there were flaws in security arrangements that prevented access to computers.

It was further revealed that the board had only removed the responsible officials from their positions rather than taking further action against them.

The BIEK chairman informed the meeting that 24,000 complaints regarding the results had already been received. After deliberation, the committee unanimously decided that the objections raised by students would be reviewed under a third-party process.

A fact-checking committee, led by Dr Lodhi, was given the mandate to investigate the assessment objections with the help of other boards.

The committee’s inquiry report, including an assessment of the board’s mechanism for handling answer sheets and tabulations, will be submitted by February 12. The fact-checking committee will also review any discrepancies in the assessment and mark sheet results.