KARACHI: The HSC annual examination’s paper of Commercial Geography-II could not be held at the Government National College on Wednesday as college teachers boycotted the exam duties in protest against severe manhandling of teachers and the ransacking of college property by a mob of outsiders.

Sources in the college said that a number of outsiders, who had been threatening the staff of dire consequences for not allowing their associates to cheat during the examination, managed to enter the college premises after the first sitting of the examination on Wednesday.

After the first session, the presence of police was negligible and political groups of outsiders ransacked the college properties and beaten up a couple of senior teachers when they refused to allow them cheating.

“The intruders were so harsh that they even did not hesitate to misbehave with our principal and torn apart his clothes too,” said a teacher.

Reacting to the ugly incident, the teachers of the National College refused to perform the examination duty any further and consequently the examination could not be held in the evening shift there.

Taking note of the situation, the Sindh Professors and Lecturers’ Association held an emergency meeting with Prof Athar Mirza in the chair and condemned the incident.

The association said that it was the failure on part of the college directorate and the law-enforcement agencies that unscrupulous elements had now started demanding for cheating facilities so openly and were giving threats to the lives of teachers and other college staffs.

The association had also announced that the teachers’ community would boycott the ongoing HSC annual examination from Thursday onwards at all the BIEK examination centres.

However, following a late-night meeting with Karachi Commissioner Roshan Ali Sheikh, the SPLA reversed its decision and decided to report for examination works as usual on Thursday.

A BIEK communication said that following assurance given by the commissioner that the culprits who manhandled the college teachers and tortured Prof Waseem Adil and Prof M Asim Owais would be arrested the association had agreed to withdraw its boycott call.

The commissioner said that more deployment of law-enforcing agency personnel at the examination centres would be ensured, it added.

On the other hand, the teachers of the National College decided to hold their general body meeting on Thursday to review the situation and decide further action.