HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) witnessed a major action against ‘corrupt officials’ when its acting controller, manager of IT department and another official were removed from service on Tuesday on charges of committing ‘mega corruption’ by manipulating results of secondary school certificate examination.

However, the board secretary Shaukat Khanzada’s action against Dr Masroor Ahmed Zai, acting controller of BISE; Aijaz Khan, Information Technology manager, and Javed Jam, a sectional in-charge, has gone down well with Universities & Boards secretary Abbas Baloch as has sought report from the BISE administration on the development.

Mr Zai claimed that he had seen the order circulating on social media on Tuesday but had not yet received it through official channels. “The BISE chairman is not administrative head and no show-cause or final show-cause notice has been issued to me, nor such [dismissal] order. It is ridiculous,” he said.

The dismissal order (BISE/ESTT/25/66) dated Jan 28, 2025, said that Mr Zai was found involved in uploading 447 candidates‘ forms onto BISE’s web portal without charging fees for SSC Part-II examination, 2024, thus causing a loss of Rs3,762,160 to the board.

It alleged: “A list of 133 candidates has been worked out of whom result of 69 has been declared by your nexus, which is referred to ‘TP’, without adoption of proper procedure of declaration of result through SS (Conduct) Branch”.

“BISE chairman, in consideration of the report and recommendations of the inquiry committee having valid and authentic proof of mega corruption has in exercise of powers vested in him under section 15(5) of BISE Hyderabad Act, 1972, (amended), removed your service with immediate effect on following grounds,” said the order.

Khanzada, who was serving on the post of secretary on the basis of deputation like his superior, BISE chairman Dr Ahmed Ali Brohi, did not respond to any call nor any text message sent to him to seek his comments.

The order said that an inquiry committee [probing corruption in the board] found cases in which Zai had used ID and password of IT manager and directly uploaded a number of examination forms of SSC-II annual examination of 2024 onto the board’s web portal without having the forms filled or fees paid, which is an act of crime/corruption, and without adopting scrutiny by SS (Conduct Branch). As a result, the board suffered financial loss running into crores of rupees (yet to be worked out),” read the order.

“We have called a report from BISE Hyderabad about the Jan 28 order. The matter was already under inquiry by Chief Minister’s Inspection Team,” said Abbas Baloch, secretary of Universities & Boards.

He said that he would present all details before competent authority [the chief minister] after seeking legal opinion from law department on the dismissal orders. Regular chairmen were to be appointed in all boards by the government, he said.

Mr Zai said that he was not called by the inquiry committee. “I will exhaust all legal remedies available to me.

The chief minister is controlling authority of all the boards while BISE secretary is himself working on deputation whose term expired in May last year. Besides, his position has already been challenged in Sindh High Court. So, he has no legal standing,” he said.

The board chairman Mr Brohi too did not respond directly to Dawn’s queries and asked this reporter to talk to his confidante, Aijaz Kaka, assistant controller BISE. “In fact, the inquiry committee was formed by the BISE chairman in December 2024,” he said.

The committee’s probe was initiated by Chief Minister’s Inspection Team (CMIT) in response to a letter written by the chairman [to the competent authority]. “The first meeting of the CMIT’s inquiry committee is held in Karachi today,” said Kaka.

“A mafia has been ruling the roost in BISE since 2009-2010 and this mafia has [now] been eliminated,” said Kaka, contesting Mr Zai’s claim that he did not receive any notices.

Sources in the BISE disclosed that currently a tug of war was under way in the board between two lobbies of management, who aimed to ensure a niche for themselves.

Both the BISE chairman and secretary face litigation over their appointments and Sindh High Court has issued them notices, while Aijaz Khan, IT Manager, has filed an appeal before the chairman against his dismissal, requesting him to review the order.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2025