LAHORE: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) on Saturday arrested four persons allegedly involved in leakage of the question paper for the written test being held for the 58 posts of the revenue department by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC).

According to an ACE spokesperson, the suspects – Waqar Akram, a junior data entry operator at the PPSC, Ghazanfar, an employee of the finance department, Gohar Ali, an MPhil History student of the Punjab University and Mazhar Iqbal, a private person – were caught red-handed by a special investigation team hours before the written test for 58 posts of tehsildar, consolidation/ hill torrent officer and reader to member Board of Revenue (BS-16), scheduled to be held across the province by the PPSC.

As many as 103,487 candidates had applied for the competitive examination against the advertised posts.

A week ago, ACE Director General Gohar Nafees had formed a three-member special investigation team to look into the reports about leakage of PPSC exams question papers.

The spokesperson said that as per ACE team’s investigation, Rs800,000 bribe was received by the suspects for leaking of each question paper.

“The four arrested gang members have confessed that they not only leaked the question papers of the test for tehsildar’s posts but also of previous papers for the posts of inspector and ACE assistant director, lecturers in Chemistry, Education etc,” he said and added that further investigation was underway.

Mr Nafees said all the facts of the scam would be brought to light and indiscriminate action would be taken against those involved in it.

Published in Dawn, Jannuary 3rd, 2021