KARACHI, Oct 19: The Board of Intermediate Education, Karachi, has been failing to take action on an inquiry report pertaining to the tampering of an answer script of HSC Part I (Pre-engineering) annual examinations 2004.

Interviews with persons concerned showed that the inquiry report, a copy of which has also been submitted to the secretariat of the Sindh governor - the controlling authority of the board - was handed over to the BIE chairman some six weeks back, but any follow-up action was yet to be witnessed.

The chairman could have at least issued notices to employees of the board, who had been suspected as foul-players, to clarify their positions, said a source, adding that it seemed the matter had been shelved due to external pressure.

In July, an examiner of mathematics paper-I had, during scrutiny, discovered an answer script almost re-written outside an examination centre, under some special arrangement. What the candidate had written on the script in the examination hall was removed using an ink-remover, at some later stage, for a fresh writing which yielded the candidate in question 98 marks.

In the initial findings, it was said that the dubious script included some irrelevant details, usually only found in official solution papers provided to co-examiners a couple of days before assessments of answer scripts are made, with printed instructions and marked advice.

The inquiry committee constituted by the BIE chairman on July 21 confirmed the initial apprehensions of the mathematics paper's examiners, and suggested that at least three of the board's employees could be held responsible for the unfair means carried out with connivance of their superiors, calling for action to be taken against them.

The committee found that five of the bundles of written scripts brought to a assessment centre, remained unchecked, but were not returned to the board the same evening. Instead, these bundles, which carried the answer script of the student in question, remained in unauthorized hands for at least three days before these were brought back to the board.

It was learnt that the bundles in question were brought to the same assessment centre again on July 17, but again returned to the board unassessed. Finally, the scripts in the bundles in question, also including the disputed script, were assessed on July 19, following which the examination staff sensed some malpractice and reported it to the BIE authorities.

A source said that office of the controlling authority of the board was also alert on the issue, and that a deputy secretary at the Sindh governor's secretariat had asked the BIE chairman on August 10 to expedite the on-going inquiry and submit a report for perusal and order of the governor Sindh/controlling authority.

When contacted, Prof Dr Ikramullah Khan, who headed a three- member inquiry committee, including Prof Muhammad Aslam Khan and Prof Sharafat Ali Usmani, said that his team had submitted its findings to the BIE many days back.

He said that allegation of tampering of the script was found valid and there was a need to take action against the employees in question, as well as their office-head to avoid such re-occurrences in future.

The BIE chairman, Prof Iftikhar H. Zaidi, said on Monday that the report in question had been received recently and he had not yet read it. "In addition to the proceedings already undertaken or planned by the board, we are also looking to the governor's secretariat for any extra instructions, as it has also acquired a copy of the report," he added.

To a question, he said that due to his illness and some preoccupations, he could not take up the issue promptly, but hoped that details of the development related to the dubious script would be made public within a week time. "I am also considering to place the report before members of the board at a meeting to be convened at some proper time," he informed.

However, independent sources in the academic circles are of the view that the chairman should not delay the matter. Since he had ordered the inquiry, he was competent enough to proceed with it further, instead of delaying matters for want of a board meeting.

They further observed that had the scope of the inquiry been extended, some more irregularities could have been detected.

When contacted, the BIE controller of examination, Prof Mohammad Amin Khalid, said that he had heard about the inquiry report, but had not received any information officially, which could have enabled him to decide about the status of the candidate in question and his intermediate examination results.