The authorities in the North Western Frontier Province NWFP of Pakistan have deployed army personnel to supervise entrance exams for an engineering course.

More than 1,500 students wrote the exams, supervised by uniformed soldiers, in the provincial capital of Peshawar.

The provincial governor, Muhammed Arif Bangash, said they had taken steps to reassure candidates that the exams were fair.

He said police would take over the job from the army from next year.

A BBC correspondent in Peshawar says the army's growing role in various spheres of Pakistani society reflects the decline of other institutions including police and civil administration.