KARACHI: The annual intermediate exams, under the aegis of the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK), commenced in the city on Wednesday.

Altogether, 159,572 candidates are appearing in the morning and evening shifts of the exams at 175 examination centres, of which 130 centres will host the morning exams and 45 evening.

Although the first shift is from 9am to 12 noon, and the second shift is from 2pm to 5pm, the first exam of the day was a two-hour Pre-Medical Part II Botany paper in the morning for which 130 centres, comprising public and private educational institutions, were engaged.

The day’s other papers comprised a Science General Part II Statistics paper and a Home Economics paper on ‘Family Relations and Child Development’.

At the Sir Syed Government Girls College in Nazimabad, the exam candidates, all girls, looked quite relaxed while solving the morning paper in cool, airy and well-lit classes. The college principal, Razia Sultana, had been mindful to reserve classes at the front of the first building for the exams.

“Sir Syed College has always had a good set-up, I’m proud to say. And for me it was just carrying on with this tradition,” the college principal told Dawn Earlier, at the Nazimabad campus of Bahria Foundation College, selected as an examination centre for boys, one was rather taken aback to find several candidates arriving even one hour late for the two-hour paper.

One boy said that he was involved in a motorcycle accident on his way to the exam centre and then he was further delayed as he got his injured friend to a hospital. He looked quite shaken himself and one could only wish him luck as he was ushered to his seat and given the question paper along with the answering booklet.

Meanwhile, another candidate, who was also late by one hour, said that he was coming to the centre from Saddar and had no idea of the time it would take him to get there.

BIEK’s Chairman Fakir Muhammad Lakho said that in order to prevent cheating in examinations, BIEK has also formed 42 super-vigilance teams, which will conduct surprise visits to examination centres across the city to review the facilities and examination process there.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2026