Every few years, the Balochistan Public Service Commission (BPSC) conducts the Provincial Civil Service (PCS) exams to recruit future bureaucrats. The last PCS exams were held in September and October 2018 for 67 vacancies for section officers and assistant commissioners. The selected candidates were to be entrusted with running various departments of the province for the next 30 years. Six months after the exam, the results were announced. Only 78 of over 9,000 candidates passed. This shocking result triggered a protest from the candidates who did not pass.
These candidates allege that the exams were marred by massive irregularities. They started their campaign on social media and highlighted discrepancies in the PCS exams in detail. After that, they lobbied to get statements in support of their protest from politicians and social media influencers. These protestors have started posting a series of video messages on social media requesting the chief justice of the Supreme Court to intervene and take sou moto notice of this case.
According to these protesting candidates, there were several flaws in the PCS exams. For instance, in exam on Balochi language, a complete question was missing. In exam on English essay and composition, there were spelling mistakes in questions, which confused the candidates. The exam of Islamic studies was rescheduled at the last moment and some candidates missed it. They argued that the exam questions were not in the syllabus and presented documentary evidence to back up their claims.
These protestors have other arguments in support of their case. They say that among those who failed the exam were toppers who did not pass their subject of specialisation. They are making the case that the papers for the PCS exams were not properly checked and majority of the candidates were arbitrarily failed.
The BPSC has rejected all these allegations. In reaction to the growing social media campaign against the PCS exams, the BPSC wrote to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and demanded that action be taken against these protestors under cybercrime laws for defaming the body.
This is not the first time that PCS exams have been subject to controversy. A similar controversy erupted after the 2012 exams. Back then, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) raided the BPSC office in September 2012 to investigate the matter. In May 2016, former chairman of BPSC, Ashraf Magsi, was arrested by NAB on allegations of irregularities and illegal appointments.
Currently, the social media campaign of the PCS exam protestors is at its peak. At the moment they are demanding cancellation of the PCS exams. “We want reforms in the BPSC structure and the PCS exams should be rescheduled only after these reforms,” said Jawad Zarakzai while talking to The Friday Times. He said more than 1,000 PCS candidates are actively involved in this campaign and they would not stop until the Supreme Court took notice of this matter.
The BPSC is a constitutional body and the exams that it conducts are hard to cancel. However, there are precedents available where such exams have been cancelled after court orders. In 2017, the Supreme Court cancelled the 2013 competitive exams of Sindh and ordered candidates to retake the exams. Using the case of Sindh as a precedent, the PCS 2018 campaigners believe that they have a strong case as well.
The PCS 2018 exams crisis has been a burning issue in the provincial discourse of Balochistan. These exams will remain a controversy until grievances of protesting candidates are not addressed.
Although the BPSC is an independent organisation, the government of Balochistan and the governor have a great deal of influence over this body. The need of the hour is to judiciously address the issue and address the allegations of the protestors. This can be done by a third party audit of the PCS exams or through a judicial inquiry. Based on the results of an independent inquiry, immediate action should be taken to put an end to this crisis.
There is also a dire need to reform the BPSC. Apparently, this important body has obsolete testing and examination systems. Reportedly, often the candidates are asked questions in job interviews like they are participants of a TV game show. There have been a growing number of complaints about lack of objectivity in the BPSC interviews.
Moreover, the BPSC needs to hire proper subject specialists to draft question papers, which are free from errors. There absolutely cannot be any justification for spelling mistakes, omissions and out of syllabus questions in the top competitive exam of the province. The BPSC can do this by ensuring transparency in all of its functions.
Two of the employees of the BPSC were among the candidates who passed the PCS 2018 exams. This is a clear case of conflict of interest, even if these candidates fairly passed the exams. Employees of the BPSC should not be allowed to take the recruitment exams conducted by the body. That is how recruitment organizations work all over the world. Therefore, the BPSC has to change its existing rules.
So far the protestors have carried out an effective campaign against PCS 2018 exams. It is the democratic right of citizens to protest against any action which they deem unfair. Therefore, the people at the BPSC and other such organisations need to understand that tactics such as asking the FIA to prosecute protestors under cybercrime laws do not work against protests by civil society on public interest matters.
The author is a journalist and researcher based in Quetta. He can be reached on Twitter @iAdnanAamir
These candidates allege that the exams were marred by massive irregularities. They started their campaign on social media and highlighted discrepancies in the PCS exams in detail. After that, they lobbied to get statements in support of their protest from politicians and social media influencers. These protestors have started posting a series of video messages on social media requesting the chief justice of the Supreme Court to intervene and take sou moto notice of this case.
According to these protesting candidates, there were several flaws in the PCS exams. For instance, in exam on Balochi language, a complete question was missing. In exam on English essay and composition, there were spelling mistakes in questions, which confused the candidates. The exam of Islamic studies was rescheduled at the last moment and some candidates missed it. They argued that the exam questions were not in the syllabus and presented documentary evidence to back up their claims.
These protestors have other arguments in support of their case. They say that among those who failed the exam were toppers who did not pass their subject of specialisation. They are making the case that the papers for the PCS exams were not properly checked and majority of the candidates were arbitrarily failed.
The BPSC has rejected all these allegations. In reaction to the growing social media campaign against the PCS exams, the BPSC wrote to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and demanded that action be taken against these protestors under cybercrime laws for defaming the body.
This is not the first time that PCS exams have been subject to controversy. A similar controversy erupted after the 2012 exams. Back then, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) raided the BPSC office in September 2012 to investigate the matter. In May 2016, former chairman of BPSC, Ashraf Magsi, was arrested by NAB on allegations of irregularities and illegal appointments.
Currently, the social media campaign of the PCS exam protestors is at its peak. At the moment they are demanding cancellation of the PCS exams. “We want reforms in the BPSC structure and the PCS exams should be rescheduled only after these reforms,” said Jawad Zarakzai while talking to The Friday Times. He said more than 1,000 PCS candidates are actively involved in this campaign and they would not stop until the Supreme Court took notice of this matter.
The BPSC is a constitutional body and the exams that it conducts are hard to cancel. However, there are precedents available where such exams have been cancelled after court orders. In 2017, the Supreme Court cancelled the 2013 competitive exams of Sindh and ordered candidates to retake the exams. Using the case of Sindh as a precedent, the PCS 2018 campaigners believe that they have a strong case as well.
The PCS 2018 exams crisis has been a burning issue in the provincial discourse of Balochistan. These exams will remain a controversy until grievances of protesting candidates are not addressed.
Although the BPSC is an independent organisation, the government of Balochistan and the governor have a great deal of influence over this body. The need of the hour is to judiciously address the issue and address the allegations of the protestors. This can be done by a third party audit of the PCS exams or through a judicial inquiry. Based on the results of an independent inquiry, immediate action should be taken to put an end to this crisis.
There is also a dire need to reform the BPSC. Apparently, this important body has obsolete testing and examination systems. Reportedly, often the candidates are asked questions in job interviews like they are participants of a TV game show. There have been a growing number of complaints about lack of objectivity in the BPSC interviews.
Moreover, the BPSC needs to hire proper subject specialists to draft question papers, which are free from errors. There absolutely cannot be any justification for spelling mistakes, omissions and out of syllabus questions in the top competitive exam of the province. The BPSC can do this by ensuring transparency in all of its functions.
Two of the employees of the BPSC were among the candidates who passed the PCS 2018 exams. This is a clear case of conflict of interest, even if these candidates fairly passed the exams. Employees of the BPSC should not be allowed to take the recruitment exams conducted by the body. That is how recruitment organizations work all over the world. Therefore, the BPSC has to change its existing rules.
So far the protestors have carried out an effective campaign against PCS 2018 exams. It is the democratic right of citizens to protest against any action which they deem unfair. Therefore, the people at the BPSC and other such organisations need to understand that tactics such as asking the FIA to prosecute protestors under cybercrime laws do not work against protests by civil society on public interest matters.
The author is a journalist and researcher based in Quetta. He can be reached on Twitter @iAdnanAamir