The MCQ-type written examination for the 49th (special) BCS 2025 was held on 10 October. The BCS is the most competitive examination conducted by the Public Service Commission. After seeing this year’s question paper, one can’t help but wonder, who are the people responsible for preparing it?
Where the examinees are expected to have correct spelling in their answers, these question papers were riddle with spelling mistakes, no one or two, but many.
Apart from discussing the spelling blunders in the MCQ-type written test questions, one cannot but question the mindset of those who prepared them. I am not sure whether any of these question setters are from Pakistan, but the way the propensity towards Pakistan was apparent in the paper, questions are bound to arise
For instance, the question paper included items such as: “Which political party is Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, who recently visited Bangladesh, affiliated with?” and “Who was the Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan in the 1970 general election?” There was even a question about the Indus Water Treaty.
Instead of highlighting our own Liberation War, instead of asking about our freedom fighters and guerrillas, the exam included a question about the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)—a banned organisation in Turkey, known as a terrorist group
Pakistan describes Bangladesh’s great Liberation War in its textbooks as an “Indian conspiracy” and calls our freedom fighters “separatists”. Our students, who will soon be responsible for running this nation, are being asked to know the political affiliation of that country’s Ishaq Dar. Are we to study Pakistan’s water disputes while remaining unaware of our own Teesta and Farakka water issues?
In the question paper, the word ‘independence’ was dropped from “Independence and National Day” of 26 March, and it was simply asked “Which one is the National Day?”
Instead of highlighting our own Liberation War, instead of asking about our freedom fighters and guerrillas, the exam included a question about the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)—a banned organisation in Turkey, known as a terrorist group in countries such as Turkey, the United States, the European Union, Japan, Australia, and the United Kingdom. And our students are expected to know more about them!
What a strange question paper! It has a question about Singapore's Muslim president, though surely it would be more important to know about the founder of modern Singapore Lee Kuan Yew.
Raising questions about issues such as the “Ainaghar” or the Commission’s proposal on consensus for reforms, seems to be an attempt to highlight the significance of the current government.
If students in a public competitive examination are to be assessed in such a manner by the question setters, there is no denying that the current authorities of the Public Service Commission seem to trivialise this exam. Otherwise, how could a question paper contain so many spelling mistakes, and how could students be asked to answer such irrelevant and meaningless questions?
* Dr. Nadim Mahmud is a researcher and the University of California, USA.
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