Recruitment process: Candidates protest ‘examination leak’

Traffic on Lawrence Road blocked for two hours.

LAHORE: More than 100 candidates who sat the written examinations given for the post of assistant director (land record) on Sunday protested on the street later claiming that the question paper had been available to those willing to pay for it.

Picketing the Lawrence Road in front of the Lahore Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education examination centres, where they took the exam, the protesters demanded that the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) administer the exam afresh.

The protesters chanted slogans against the PPSC accusing the officials of leaking the paper. Many visitors to the Lawrence Gardens were inconvenienced.

Muhammad Shakil, one of the candidates, said some candidates had overheard others discussing the questions they expected to be on the exam. He said no one paid much attention, then later the news of a leak spread.

He said it was then that some of the candidates decided to gather in front of the centre and were later joined by more protesters.

Muhammad Rizwan, another protester, demanded an independent inquiry into the matter. “What is the point of a process and insistence on merit if such leaks continue to happen and the Commission cannot control them?” he asked.

Shaikh Danyal, a candidate who said he had done well on the test, also said that such protests were nothing new. He said those who realised they had not done well often came up with such excuses. “Even if the exam is given again, there can be no guarantee to everybody’s satisfaction that the question paper will not be leaked,” he said.

Some of the protesters, however, announced that they will soon come up with a “comprehensive strategy” to record their protest in an effective manner. No spokesperson for the PPSC was available for their comments.

More than 17,000 candidates sat the exam for 79 seats held simultaneously at Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan. No such incident was reported from the rest of the two cities.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2012.