Proving credentials: Court gives open varsity VC two weeks

IHC moved to remove Nazir Ahmed Sangi for violating rules.

ISLAMABAD:

A local court on Thursday gave the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) Vice-Chancellor (VC) two weeks to respond to allegations concerning his PhD degree.

Islamabad High Court judge Noorul Haq Qureshi sought a reply from VC Nazir Ahmed Sangi, AIOU chancellor and registrar and Higher Education Commission (HEC) chairman in response to a petition filed by the Employees’ Welfare Association.

Referring to a news item published in various newspapers on March 13, about the VC’s alleged fake degree, the petitioners’ counsel maintained that Sangi claimed to have obtained a PhD degree from the University of Liverpool, UK in 1987, but he never mentioned the subject. “He did not even get his degree verified from HEC which is in violation of rules.”

Advocate Khurram Qureshi, who was representing the petitioners, informed the bench that VC Nazir Ahmed Sangi has been serving as a professor of Computer Sciences since 1999, even though he is not qualified for this post.



“A PhD degree in Computer Sciences is a pre-requisite for this post, including 15 years of postgraduate teaching experience, eight years experience in research or publications in journals of international repute.” Sangi has neither the experience nor the relevant degrees, he added.

The petitioners’ counsel alleged that the VC is also misusing his powers and has appointed junior officers in grade 12 as personal secretaries in grade 17, violating statutory rules of the university.

The VC had advertised a post for a lecturer for which 89 candidates with M.Phil in Physics applied, he said. “The VC’s son Ibrahim Nazir Sangi was selected to teach Physics even though he has neither an MSc in Physics nor an M.Phil in the subject and his appointment is illegal.”

He requested the court to remove the VC and direct him to reimburse the perks he has been receiving since 1999.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2013.