The Nation

LAHORE – Candidates, appearing in a test on Saturday to become future lecturers, found themselves in a fog thick as pea soup. The Mass Communication paper, set by the Punjab Public Service Commission, was out of the course outline of journalism taught at both graduate as well as postgraduate levels in our universities.
It may be mentioned here that the PPSC had arranged tests in four subjects. They included Journalism, Sociology, Physical Education and Punjabi. The examination for recruitment of about 2,500 lectures which had started on September 23 will end on September 29.
The 100 marks’ paper of Journalism, comprising MCQs of one mark each, mainly pertained to the history. It did not touch the core subjects of News Technique, Design of News Pages, Media History, National & International Affairs, Communication I &II, Public Relations, Development Support Communication, Editorial, Feature and Column Writing, Advertising, Magazine Journalism or Writing Practices.
It was later learnt that instead of assigning the task of paper setting to a qualified person or a media practitioner, the PPSC had assigned the paper to a man who holds a PhD degree in History. So, the candidates have urged the authorities to hold re-examination so that the competent personnel could be recruited for the posts.
“At least four MCQs were related to cricket background. I was surprised when he (paper setter) asked to reply answer as who was the bowler, whose sixth ball was hit by Javed Miandad,” a candidate Sajjad said. He said it seemed the paper was set by any irrelevant person; perhaps having history background otherwise a professor from Journalism department could never do such wrongdoing with his students of media. “Around 60 percent question paper based on history, pre partition and post partition Pakistan Affairs and such other things,” he added.
Moreover, the candidates protested against the PPSC administration, terming it a criminal act. Some of the candidates even went on to protest in T-Center at BISE Examination Center on Lawrence Road and refused to attempt the question paper. Mostly candidates left the paper incomplete and some of them un-attempted and walked out from the examination center.
Cursing the PPSC, they said the administration had committed a criminal act by doing so otherwise never in the history such paper was sent for regular classes or any competitive exams. “I have already attempted CSS but no such paper I ever gone through,” another candidate commented. They demanded the exam should be re-conducted.