KARACHI, May 1: Many impersonators who are caught red-handed every year during the examinations held under various educational boards in the city go unpunished.

Sources privy to the conduct of SSC and HSC examinations said that the educational boards largely remained concerned with the examination malpractices carried out by a candidate or group of candidates and never pressed for any legal action against impersonators for various reasons.

Normally, a person who is caught impersonating is forced out of the exam hall while the exam results of the actual candidate, who does not appear to take that particular paper examination is annulled, though he/she is allowed to take the remaining papers of the exam, pending a scrutiny of his case by the unfair means committee of the board, says a source.

Experts in education felt that a proper prosecution of the impersonators could lead to unearthing of any organised gangs of persons hiding behind the school management to which the bona fide candidate belonged. It could also lead to their being part of a gang that strikes deals with the parents of weak candidates in order to see them pass with flying colours, with the alleged connivance of the educational board officials as well.

Talking to Dawn, Abdul Maroof, a public prosecutor, said that irrespective of the possibilities or outcome of an effective action against the impersonators or mercenaries, educational boards, the centre superintendents and teachers of schools who performed as invigilators and vigilance officers should forward the cases of impersonation to the police for the sake of integrity and sanctity of the public examinations.

“The criminal laws available should be invoked against the impersonators as well,” he added, saying that if the police or concerned police station does not take meaningful action against the impersonators, a complaint against the officers concerned could be made to the higher authorities.

He said that all sort of malpractices were needed to be sorted out both under the board rules and the Pakistan Penal Code (1860) provisions; otherwise the standard of education in Sindh would continue to deteriorate.

Section 419 (Punishment for cheating by personation) of the PPC says that “Whoever cheats by personation shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, or with fine, or with both.”

Section 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) says: “Whosoever cheats and through dishonestly induces the person deceived to deliver any property to any person, or to make, alter or destroy the whole or any part of a valuable security, or anything which is signed or sealed, and which is capable or being converted into valuable security, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.”

Section 468 (Forgery for the purpose of cheating) of PPC says: “Whoever commits forgery, intending that the documents forged shall be used for the purpose of cheating, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall be liable to a fine.”

Chairman of Heads and Teachers Welfare Associations Alliance, Abdul Rehman Khan, said that the teachers, too, believed that people who impersonated the candidates in examinations should be handed over to the police for punishment under the rules. “However, the prevailing style of governance, popular stories of peculiar dealings, outside interference in the process of examination and non-seriousness of the police in prosecuting such cases and in providing security to the examination staffs are the main factors behind no activism of the academia,” he added.

The controller of examinations of the Board of Secondary Education, Karachi, Rafia Mallah, confirmed that about 60 impersonators had been detected so far during the ongoing SSC annual examinations, but none of them could be handed over to the police.

“However, we have been taking extreme actions as per the rules of the board against the candidates who are registered with us for the examinations,” she added and said that they are accessible and are called by the committee, which deals with the cases of unfair means, including the unauthorised change of centre, copying, escaping away with scripts and impersonations.

The controller said that under the existing norms, a statement from the impersonator, establishing the incident of impersonation along with the details of the candidate who was illegally represented at the centre, is acquired by the centre staff and the impersonators allowed to go free.

“A candidate who does not appear in person for a paper and allowed others to appear [impersonator] is debarred for three years, while the results of the year are also cancelled,” Ms Mallah added.

On April 16, six individuals suspected of impersonating candidates who were supposed to appear for the Urdu (Class X) General group papers fled Government Boys Secondary Schools-1, C Area, Landhi-1.

“Sensing that they might be handed over to the police for candidate impersonation, they managed to escape from the examination centre in question,” said a BSE source.

When contacted, the chairman of the Committee of Chairmen of Educational Board in Sindh, Anwar A. Zai, said that the impersonators could be handled under the laws of the country, but the lethargic procedure that followed caused unwillingness to do so on the part of the examination centre staff.

“In my capacity as the chairman of the Board of the Intermediate Education Karachi, I caught a couple of individuals impersonating the candidates in HSC examinations at a centre last year. They were later on handed over to the police by my staff as well. However, I cannot say with any degree of certainty what happened to them finally,” the chairman added, saying that it was high time that examination staff and teachers are motivated to take the issue of impersonation seriously in order to lodge cases of fraudulence against the individuals in question.