THERE is a strange concept of collective punishment in Sindh. Yet again, like the candidates of the Combined Competitive Examination (CCE) 2013, all candidates of CCE 2020 have been punished for the crimes of a few. On Feb 24, the Sindh High Court (SHC) ordered the CCE 2020 to be re-conducted.

This decision was made after the official assignee submitted the report to the court that the results of CCE 2020 were tampered with. A few influential candidates were granted additional marks so that they may be declared successful in the written examination.

However, this case could have been handled more prudently. The result of those candidates involved in tampering of the result should have been set aside, while the results of the remaining candidates should have been announced. There is no rocket science involved here. We must remember that the written examination was conducted in November 2020.

Now this task may be delegated to a competent authority, such as the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC), because the Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) has lost its credibility to uphold transparency and meritocracy.

If the SPSC re-conducts this exami-nation, there is no guarantee that such tampering of results will not be repeated. A trend of re-conducting the CCE has been set in Sindh. The fact

that CCE 2013 and CCE 2020 were ordered to be re-conducted, and CCE 2018 and CCE 2019 were challenged is enough to suggest that more exams will be re-conducted and challenged in the future as well.

Preparing for a competitive exami-nation is an arduous task which takes months, even years. I, like a whole lot of other CCE 2020 candidates, belong to a humble background. Such candidates were not taken into account before this decision was announced.

One can easily come to the conclusion that the future of the aspirants is bleak. They must find other means of employ-ment as there is no certainty that the SPSC will ever ensure transparency and merito- cracy, and will not make appointments on the basis of favouritism and nepotism.

Naif Memon
Hyderabad

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2023