Whither merit?

As many as 500 candidates were caught cheating during the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) assessment exam held in the previous week.

According to details, around 500 candidates were caught solving papers through internet browsing on mobile phones and 50 of them were identified as Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) or Intelligence Bureau (IB) officers who were trying their luck for the lucrative packages which will be offered to the NACTA’s new inductees .

Openings were announced to fill 130 positions, including 34 vacancies in the NACTA, which the government is betting on for a decisive war against terrorism.

The NACTA chief national coordinator is also accused of nepotism as his personal staff, which was involved in the assessment process, also took the exam and was declared successful, raising questions on the transparency of these appointments.

The recruitment process became suspicious right from the beginning as the positions were advertised on August 16 and August 25 was given as the deadline for submitting applications whereas the test date was set to be just a week later, September 1, sparing no time for scrutiny of the applicants’ documents.

A quota system was followed to invite applications from all provinces but the candidates residing in distant places received the call letters for assessment exams a day before the test.

The manner in which the exam was held at Islamabad’s Liaquat Gymnasium was no less than a joke.

The exam was scheduled to begin at 9 am but the question papers were distributed at 10:30 am. The candidates outnumbered the question papers as there were 5,000 hopefuls. Half of the candidates were made to wait as the staff photocopied the question papers for the remaining lot who received them at 12:30 pm.

There were around 10 invigilators for the 5,000 candidates, hundreds of who were busy cheating since they were allowed to bring mobile phones to the center. In certain cases, the invigilators were also found helping favored candidates.

Hundreds of candidates openly used their smart phones to answer the question paper’s 80 percent multiple choice questions (MCQs) whereas others searched the internet to write a few paragraphs on their suggestions to eradicate terrorism.

The marking process was also questionable. Several NACTA officials had also applied for the advertised posts to upgrade their positions, including Zeeshan Anjum, a close aide of NACTA Coordinator Haider Ali.

Zeeshan had applied for the position of deputy director. Zeeshan’s boss had prepared the question paper, Zeeshan’s seniors in NACTA were involved in marking the papers, Zeeshan himself led a group of NACTA officials for tabulation of results and though many of his colleagues question his ability to write a single line in English, Zeeshan turned out to be among the three candidates shortlisted from Punjab/Islamabad for the post of deputy director.

It is yet to be seen whether he will be selected for the interview after qualifying the written test in which hundreds of candidates from Punjab failed.

The interview panel will be presided by the NACTA coordinator.

The NACTA coordinator has admitted mismanagement during the exams. He acknowledged the use of mobile phones and also that the delivery of question papers to several candidates was delayed.

Offering a justification, he said the staff did not take the papers from the candidates involved in cheating, fearing a law and order situation. Instead, he advised his invigilators to mark the cheaters so their papers could be cancelled later.

“We later cancelled the papers of those found cheating,” he said explaining there were around 500 such candidates. According to him, besides private candidates, intelligence officials were the main trouble-makers as they started quarreling when the staff attempted to take their mobile phones away.

A NACTA official said there were 50 candidates marked as cheaters who belonged to the ISI or IB.

Another NACTA official contradicted the coordinator’s claim of spotting cheaters and canceling their papers later on. According to that official, the cancellation of papers took place as a face-saving attempt after orders to the Interior Ministry from the ISI officials and other candidates to paint the entire exercise as transparent.

NACTA has long been used as a dumping ground instead of evolving as an active counter-terrorism authority. The organisation had tried to advertise vacancies during the caretaker set-up but the request to do so was rejected by the interim government following the Supreme Court’s directives.

When questioned about Zeeshan, the NACTA coordinator said he was working as assistant director but was at liberty to take the exam, if he desired to do so. However, he denied giving preferential treatment to Zeeshan.