THREATS TO THE EXAMINATION SYSTEM IN KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA PAKISTAN

Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT) 2023 has been rescheduled to be held on November 26, 2023, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces of Pakistan. The test was previously held on September 10, 2023, across the country but leakage of question paper in Sindh and use of unfair means on vast scale including the use of sophisticated electronic blue tooth devices in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa compelled the respective governments to cancel the test and get it reconducted. Apart from approaching other quarters, a handful of candidates moved the Supreme Court too against the decision of the governments, which according to them, put the legitimate candidates in another phase of useless fatigue and provides another unnecessary chance to the failed candidates but the Supreme Court remained unconvinced. Resultantly, the Dow University of Health Sciences in Sindh and Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through Khyber Medical University (KMU) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are striving to conduct a fair and transparent test in their respective provinces.

In Sindh, arrangements are being made as a matter of routine but in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa an unprecedented and somehow irrational hype is being witnessed with regard to arrangements for the test. The Educational Testing and Evaluation Agency (ETEA) which was established back in 1998 with the sole purpose of conducting entrance examinations for admissions in Medical Colleges and Engineering Universities, and it has conducted the tests since than for both entrance examinations, has been taken out of the process. The Government has entrusted KMU to conduct the test this time. However, reasons of withdrawal of the

test from ETEA has not been announced officially. Apparently, the primary reason is the assumption that if 219 candidates involved in cheating through a sophisticate Bluetooth device have been caught red-handed, many would have certainly dodged the arrangements and successfully attempted the paper with the help of unfair means. This assumption is denied by the ETEA authorities, and they ask for proofs if any such candidate has been identified by any authority or the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) constituted by the Home Department subsequent to the allegations of use of Bluetooth devices on social media. However, no such evidence has been presented by the Home Department, JIT or any other authority to the public so far. Many have already questioned that if ETEA is an attached department of Higher Education Department and Medical Colleges fall under the jurisdiction of Health Department, how come Home Department intervened in the matter and Additional Chief Secretary Home not only moved the summary to constitute the JIT but now he is leading the whole exercise of re-conduct of the test. The composition of the JIT has also been questioned by the media and the concerned candidates as well. They were of the view that if the offspring of two of its members (Additional Secretary Home Department and Deputy Director Intelligence Bureau) could not score the required marks in the held test and the JIT is headed by an officer of the Police department which failed to obstruct the sale-purchase of a forbidden device before the test and block its entry into the test centers, how the proceedings of the JIT can be impartial. ETEA authorities claim that Police, district administrations or the concerned Law Enforcement Agencies did not provide them the required support and they apprehend the devices solely at their own. However, now the situation has taken a dramatic turn.

The Additional Chief Secretary of the Home and Tribal Affairs Department is personally steering the whole process. He is not only chairing the coordination meetings, but he has also made the whole of the government machinery involved in the process. Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners have been assigned the task of managing the test centers. The Police department and other Law Enforcement Agencies are made responsible for making foolproof security arrangements in and around the test centers. Upon direction of the Home Department, concerned district administrations have imposed Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code in and around the venues. This section of law is usually employed to maintain law and order or bar a specific activity taking place in a particular area. It has also been revealed that the Provincial Government will approach the relevant authorities to suspend the mobile phone service on the test day. This all is being done just to administer an examination. Now the Government can possibly take three further steps to make the arrangements foolproof i.e., declaration of state of emergency which at the moment has been declared at the Health Department level only, deployment of armed forces and imposition of curfew in the cities where tests will be held.

In the meanwhile, the Public Service Commission of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has also declared the recently conducted exam for recruitment of Sub-Divisional Officers (SDO)/Sub-Engineers in the Communication and Works Department as null and void on the identical allegations of use of Bluetooth devices. It would be interesting to see if the Additional Chief Secretary of the Home Department steps in and take the same measures during the re-conduct of this exam too because importance of recruitment of SDOs is no less than the admissions in medical and dental colleges.

Use of unfair means, mobile phones, Bluetooth devices, impersonation of candidates etc. are not confined to the entrance tests or recruitment of SDOs only. This menace is spread everywhere. There is always a hue and cry regarding every possible use of unfair mean in every exam conducted by the Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education. The situation in higher education at universities’ level is also very grim where no external check exists on their examination system. ETEA and Public Service Commission conduct tests regularly for even more important positions. Is the intervention of Additional Chief Secretary Home, suspension of mobile phone service, imposition of Section 144, bringing in the Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners, involvement of whole of the government machinery etc. to conduct a test, a solution to this problem!!

Of course not. Examinations and tests for admission and recruitments is a continuous and unending process taking place throughout the year. It is not possible for irrelevant authorities to intervene every time and try to do a job which they are not meant to do. For some meager political gains this can happen once in a blue moon but the lasting solution rest in strengthening the institutions which have been established to do this job and bolstering the overall testing apparatus. Even more important is to track down the gangs involved in this business and bring them to justice. It is interesting to know about the gang which has been found involved in sabotaging the testing process by use of Bluetooth devices.

Information so far revealed from various channels has surfaced that the gangs involved in the scam have outshone the institutional setups of the government by using highly sophisticated equipment and staying abreast of its weaknesses. Society, on the other hand, has accepted this curse as a social norm and they do not hesitate to pay huge amounts to such gangs to get undue advantage for their children.

The main culprit reportedly involved in Bluetooth scandal both at Public Service Commission and MDCAT has been named as Mr. Zafar Mahmood, a graduate of University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar and presently an Assistant Director at Federal Public Service Commission, Islamabad. According to well placed sources, he along with his brother, an employee of Rescue Service 1122 and 76 other cronies are in the Police custody. They are being interrogated for their crimes and their cases are put in trails at various courts of law.

Mr. Mahmood was first caught by ETEA authorities during the Engineering Entrance Test in 2017 when he was impersonating as an invigilator during the test. He was handed over to the Police on the spot but on the very next weekend he was once again caught by ETEA when he impersonated as a candidate in MDCAT 2017, documentary evidence of which is available with Police and ETEA authorities. Once again Police took his custody, but he escaped justice. Obviously, it is not a one man job. He must be having a handful of members in his gang.

It would be best known to them that how many illegitimate candidates made their way to the professional colleges having unlawful support of this gentleman and how many ingenuine people joined various services in the public sector as the is in the business since 2016-17. Leakage or smuggling of question papers from the test centers and providing the solution to the targeted candidates from outside remained their most successful and widely used tactics. Impersonation (appearance of highly qualified persons in exams for actual candidates) through forged ID cards and other documents is yet another trick used by the said gang. But to the utter surprise of many, this time the gang came up with a novel idea of using Bluetooth devices for cheating purposes. It is astonishing to know that a prohibited device, which is meant to use in clandestine activities, was imported by the gang and sold to the candidates on a large scale. Hundreds of parents bought the device for their children by paying, or at least making commitments of paying millions of rupees to the gang, so that their children could make their way to the medical colleges. This large-scale activity, rumors about which were circulating before the test, went unattended. None of the relevant law enforcement agencies took notice of it. Of course, not all, but a huge number of candidates were caught in test centers, who pointed fingers to Zafar Mahmood's gang.

This must be a big surprise for the cheater candidates as well as the masterminds of the scam when the staff of ETEA, without having any technical tools or expertise, apprehended many of them and ultimately enabled Law Enforcement Agencies to arrest the members of gang.

Mr. Zafar Mahmood is considered an evil genius among his cronies. He is referred to as Pablo Escobar (the Columbian drug lord, who was famous for cheating the systems and running an intercontinental drug cartel known as Medellín Cartel). Mr. Mahmood followed in the footsteps of Escobar in another filthy business and ran it successfully for a long time. He has been ultimately arrested and is now facing trial, but he exposed weaknesses of the systems run by the government institutions. 

It is not possible that every time the Additional Chief Secretary or the Home department will step in and conduct the tests by engaging the whole of government machinery. It’s the responsibility of Law Enforcement Agencies to keep an eye on elements involved in criminal activities as referred above, and apprehend them before they are successful in executing their nefarious designs. It’s the responsibility of every testing regime to develop such systems and apparatus which are difficult to dodge. And It’s the responsibility of society to expose such elements instead of falling into their traps, else state and state institutions will become a laughingstock.