LAHORE (The Thursday Times) — Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Sunday removed the deputy commissioner of Jhelum from his post with immediate effect, and ordered that intermediate Computer Science papers postponed because of her planned visit to the district be held on their original date.
“Despite my explicit instructions that no inconvenience or disruption whatsoever should be caused to the public during my visits to the districts, such an incident has nevertheless occurred. This is a clear disregard for my directions,” she wrote on X. “Accordingly, the Deputy Commissioner (DC) is hereby REMOVED FROM THE POST WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT.”
Less than an hour later she overruled the postponement. “Notwithstanding any acts of foolishness or misplaced over-smartness on part of the district administration, the examinations shall be held strictly in accordance with the original schedule, i.e. Tuesday, 10th November,” she wrote.
Fresh orders to officials: later on Sunday she said a message had “once again been sent” to all regional and district police officers, commissioners and deputy commissioners. “No market, shop, business, or any other establishment shall be closed or asked to suspend its operations on account of my visit. Similarly, no residential street shall be blocked or sealed, nor shall any restriction be imposed on the movement of residents under the pretext of security arrangements,” she wrote. Security measures should be “discreet”, she said, and “failing to comply will result in strict action.”
What happened: the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Rawalpindi had moved the Computer Science papers of the Intermediate Second Annual Examination 2026 in Jhelum district from Tuesday, November 10 to Monday, November 30, on the deputy commissioner’s recommendation. The chief minister is expected to visit Jhelum and Pind Dadan Khan on November 10. The change covered both the morning and evening groups, and papers in the board’s other districts were to go ahead as scheduled.
With her post, the chief minister shared a letter from the deputy commissioner’s office to the board chairman, dated November 6. It proposed that the paper, due to be held at Government Comprehensive School in Jhelum, be shifted to another examination centre “instead of postponing the examination throughout the district”, citing the VVIP visit and expected traffic congestion that “may cause inconvenience to the students and their parents”. The letter superseded an earlier one from the office the same day.
In an earlier letter to the board, reported before the chief minister acted, the deputy commissioner had said the administrative, security and protocol arrangements for the visit would make it unfeasible to hold the examination smoothly. The board had said it would issue new roll number slips, and that previously issued slips would stay valid.
Students in Jhelum who were due to sit the papers should now do so on Tuesday, November 10, as originally scheduled.
