KARACHI, May 19: The examination staff, reportedly fed up with outside interference, expressed their reluctance to conduct the on-going HSC annual examinations at the Government Degree College, Buffer Zone, on Wednesday.

Though examination of science group candidates was held peacefully in the morning shift, staff performing duties inside the centre were annoyed at a firing incident outside the college soon after the completion of the examination sitting, Prof Ishrat Jamal told Dawn.

He denied that there were any interruptions in the examination due to "outside interference" within the centre, he said, and admitted that outsiders tried to influence the examination staff, but the staff did not succumb to their pressure tactics.

In the meantime, Sindh Professors and Lecturers' Association claimed that some armed outsiders entered the Buffer Zone college premises on Wednesday while examinations were continuing and asked that some candidates be allowed to use unfair-means, while the police or rangers personnel were not present at the centre.

However, upon resistance from the examination staff, they resorted to aerial firing which is surely a cause of conern for college teachers at the centre, said Prof Riaz Ahsan and Agha Khalid Pathan, President and Secretary General of SPLA.

They urged the governor and chief minister to end outside interference at the college. They said that it were the efforts of college teachers and other concerned that police and rangers turned up at the scene, following which the hooligans fled. They said that some of the examination staff of the college had been threatened of dire consequences by "anti-social elements" as well.

The controller of examination of BIE, Prof Asif Pasha, said he had been informed that a firing incident took place at 12.15 pm outside the centre. However, the examination was conducted smoothly.

A couple of teachers were of the view that firing incidents were not related to the examination, according to Prof Asif Pasha. When contacted, Prof Iftikhar Zaidi, chairman of BIE, said that as soon as he got the report, he rushed to the college when some candidates were leaving the centre at 12.30pm, while a majority of the teachers were present on the upper floor of the college where examinations were conducted.

The teachers were tense due to firing outside the college, but they agreed to continue the examination duties on Thursday as well, once I assured them that full protection would be provided to them at the centre, he added.