KARACHI: The annual Higher Secondary School Certificate exams under the Board of Intermediate Edu­cation Karachi (BIEK) kicked off on Friday with the pre-medical group appearing for their part-I Urdu paper and the commerce group taking their part-I Islamiat exams in the morning and evening shifts, respectively.

All in all there are 184,000 candidates appearing in science pre-medical, pre-engineering, general science, home economics, medical technology and commerce regular and private exams this year.

Candidates appearing for pre-medical, pre-engineering, general science, home eco­no­mics and medical technology exams are going to be accommodated in the morning shifts from 9.30am to 12.30pm.

Candidates appearing for commerce regular and private exams will sit for their exams in the afternoon shift from 2.30pm to 5.30pm.

Rumours started circulating about the exam papers being leaked on the first day, which were denied by the BIEK. “We open the seals of the question papers some 15 minutes before time in order to distribute them among students,” said a BIEK spokesman. “That does not mean that the papers have been leaked though,” he added.

Meanwhile, board chairman Prof Inam Ahmad, controller of examinations Mohammed Jafar, director-general of colleges Prof Dr Nasir Ansar paid surprise visits with special vigilance teams throughout the day to exam centres, including Govt Delhi College, Govt Sirajudaullah College, D.J. Sindh Govt Science College, Govt City College and Govt Islamia College for Women.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2017