Hajj scam, fake degree: Man challenges FIA’s accusation

Court issues notice to investigation agency.

ISLAMABAD:

A court issued a notice to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to respond to a former ministry consultant who claimed to be falsely accused of holding a fake degree.

FIA had filed a case against Zain Iftikhar Sukhera, who is also a close friend of the prime minister’s son, accusing him of fraud and holding a fake degree.

Sukhera, a former consultant in Ministry of Information and Technology, was accused of involvement in the Hajj scam and holding a fake LLB degree from Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan.

A case was registered against him on November 12, 2010.

The counsel of the petitioner said during a hearing in the Islamabad High Court that his client was innocent and wrongly implicated in the case.

He informed the court
that the degree of his petitioner was genuine and the university had not cancelled it.

Furthermore, “LLB degree was not the requirement for the appointment in ministry,” he said.

According to the petitioner’s lawyer, FIA had no jurisdiction to inquire about his client’s degree, the authenticity of which can be obtained from District Multan where the examinations took place.

He said that university was the only authority to ascertain the authenticity.

“If he obtained a fake degree, the university is the competent authority to lodge an FIR against him,” he argued.

The counsel for the petitioner told the court that his client had also deposited back his salaries in public exchequers which he got after the appointment as consultant.

On February 21, last month Special Judge Central FIA Sohail Nasir granted him interim bail.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2011.