In a scandal that has literally rocked the Federal Public Service Commission, candidates appearing in the Civil Superior Services examination managed to steal their answer sheets with the help of post officials and then returned the same by solving their papers.
The FPSC, which in presently looking into the matter, confirmed that at least one parcel carrying the CSS answer sheets of candidates, who appeared at a centre in Faisalabad, had disappeared for several days while finally reaching its destination — the FPSC head-office in Islamabad.
It was also ascertained by the commission in its preliminary report that not only the seal of the parcel was tampered with but the answer sheets of seven to eight subjects had also been found altered.
Another enquiry is being held by the Post Office authorities amid reports that two of its officials involved in this scandal have already been identified.
Alarmed by this embarrassing development, the FPSC has now sought the details about the dispatch and delivery of each and every parcel from all the CSS centres countrywide to see the scale of this scandal. The FPSC has also decided to hand over the matter to the FIA once the initial internal inquiries of the commission and the Post Office are completed.
Normally, such a parcel should reach its destination even from far-off cities in two days but in this case it took the parcel several days to reach the FPSC head office. It is said that unknown number of CSS candidates had bribed certain officials of the Post Office to get hold of the parcel while it was in transit.
After successfully stealing the parcel, they opened its seal, tampered their answer sheets with correct answers, got the parcel sealed again and then let it reach its destination.
Top officials in the commission as well as the Post Office department are trying to keep the things secret to avoid public embarrassment. Sources in the FPSC also raise the question that like the answer sheets, there is a possibility of the CSS question papers getting into the wrong hands.