KARACHI, April 2: Following complaints about the alleged leak-out of MA first year paper, the authorities at the Federal Urdu University for Arts, Sciences and Technology have decided to institute an inquiry into the matter, said official sources.

According to a source at the university, basing on a verbal statement by a group of students of MA (Part I), chairman of the Mass Communication department submitted a petition to the Controller of Examination, asking him to declare the recently held paper of 'Sahafati Zuban' 'cancelled' and announce a new date for the same.

Chairman of the department Muhammad Saleem Mughal said he had learnt about discrepancy a couple of days back when four students, three of them female, conceded before a group of teachers and university registrar that the course incharge of the Sahafati Zuban, Ms Rana Iqbal, had leaked out the questions paper, which not only was a breach of the conduct, but also amounted to nullify the purpose of the whole exercise.

On her part, Ms Rana Iqbal, a cooperative teacher, told Dawn that the allegation was baseless. Denying leaking out the paper at any stage, she said: "It is ridiculous. If the chairman had got any evidence, he should have first let me clarify my position, instead of moving the Controller of Examination."

She pointed out that as a normal practice by all teachers, she had provided her students with a set of 27/28 questions as 'important' so that they could undertake a selective study."I have been teaching at the department for many years, but only this year, asked to set paper because the teacher supposed to do this work had expressed regrets on health ground," she said. She said there seemed "a personal grudge in the move against her."

The Controller of Examinations, Viqarul Haq, however, said that he had received the chairman's letter, revealing that all but one questions were leaked out to the candidates before the examination on Thursday.

"I placed the letter before the chief administrator (acting vice-chancellor) of the university, Aftab Ahmad Khan, on Friday and discussed the matter with him. Mr Khan has finally indicated that with the consultation of the university's registrar, an inquiry be instituted soon to ascertain the facts, the controller said.

Some of the students who had expressed their views during their meeting with the chairman and other teachers on March 31, wrote to the vice-chancellor that they were being dragged into the dirty politics of the department unnecessarily.