No fallout from BISE scandal: Lahore board exam controller’s job safe

By Waqar Gillani

LAHORE: The Punjab government in not considering any administrative change in the Lahore Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), including the removal of its controller of examinations, following the chief minister’s perusal of an inquiry report.

A senior government official denied reports that the BISE controller would be removed for his role in the controversy surrounding the registration of a criminal case against two girls. Punjab Chief Secretary Kamran Rasool had ordered an inquiry into why an FSc student and her tutor, a doctor, were booked for interfering in official affairs, damaging official property and threatening officials on July 12. The inquiry committee recommended that the board chairman and secretary be replaced for wrongly implicating the two girls. However, Education Minister Imran Masood recommended leniency to the chief minister.

On Tuesday, there were reports that Controller of Examinations Dr Muhammad Zulfiqar Ali Rana would be removed because he was deemed responsible for not satisfying the girls’ grievances in the first place. The FSc student was given an out-of-course exam in April. She went to the BISE office several times to get the mistake rectified, but was told to come back later each time. Out of frustration, she broke a flower pot outside the chairman’s office.

However, senior government officials told Daily Times that the issue had been settled. “The education minister held a meeting with the chief secretary and asked him to censure the officials rather than replacing them,” they said. “After that the chief minister told the BISE officials they should not over react to such issues of inquiry, especially matters pertaining to girls.”

They said after Mr Masood’s intervention, the chief minister had decided to let the officials off with a warning. They said the minister had noted that the initial fault lay with the controller, “however, the mater was resolved amicably”.

Mr Masood confirmed that no administrative change in the board was being considered. “The matter is now closed, especially after I arranged a meeting of the BISE authorities and the girls,” he said. “The Punjab CM and CS have also settled the matter.”

Meanwhile, the Lahore BISE, in a statement issued on Wednesday, said intermediate exam candidates who had been given the wrong question papers should submit their applications to the controller of examinations by September 7, 2004. The board’s committee will examine the applications. According to board officials, there are more than 30 such cases.

More mistakes: Education Department officials pointed out several errors in the recently declared intermediate exam results.

They said the Sargodha board had missed the name of one top marks getter in the results announced on August 7, but had rectified the mistake.

One of the question papers for the matriculation supplementary examination in the Multan Bahawalpur Board was reportedly leaked and later cancelled. Question papers in Gujranwala were wrongly distributed and later cancelled.

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