Victimisation complaint: PSF wants cheating case withdrawn

Twenty-five students say they were accused on account of their political leaning.

MULTAN:

Some 50 members of the Peoples Student Federation on Wednesday staged a protest demonstration demanding that the controller of examinations let 25 of them, accused of cheating, retake the examination and withdraw the cheating case against them.

Last month, Chaudhry Saleem, an examination superintendent, had caught 25 mechanical and civil engineering students for allegedly cheating during an exam. After being accused, the students had then torn their answer sheets claiming that they were wrongly accused and “would not tolerate that”.

Following protests by the student union, Saleem was removed and the results cancelled. The exam has not been held again. However, the university administration had registered a case against the 25 students. On Wednesday, activists from the PSF, the student wing of the PPP, protested at the Bahauddin Zakariya University saying the students had been wrongly accused.

They demanded that the controller of examination, Malik Munir, arrange exams for them again. The protesting students blamed the superintendent for being against the PSF students due to “political rivalry”. Ijaz Haideri, a PSF representative and a BZU student, said the controller of examinations had been unfair to them.

Munir told The Express Tribune that the students were caught red-handed. Still, he said, the superintendent was changed to appease the students.  He said he had been receiving threats from some students for registering a case against them.

“I conduct more than 150 examinations under the BZU. We cannot compromise the integrity of examination. They have been trying to politicise the issue and pressure the administration, but we will hold an investigation before the exams are conducted again,” he said.

Published In The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2012.