UoS acting registrar found guilty of embezzlement

All sub-campuses established during Kamran’s tenure declared illegal by commission

A special audit conducted by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) found the University of Sargodha (UoS) Acting Registrar Mudassar Kamran guilty of embezzlement.

The audit was conducted on the orders issued by the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Federal Education and Professional Training.

In the report, HEC noted the scale of corruption involving affiliated colleges and private campuses, which have sold degrees for cheap to thousands of people, over a span of several years.



The report highlighted that Kamran was holding the post of acting registrar and the acting additional registrar, simultaneously. He was also involved in the illicit activities of former vice chancellor Dr Akram Chaudhry, especially in granting affiliations to private colleges and by establishing sub campuses on a private-public partnership.

The former VC, who is currently facing an inquiry from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), appointed Kamran as deputy registrar before making him additional registrar, ignoring several senior officers for the post.



In addition to this, he was also the secretary of the Campus Provision Committee and played a key role in establishing sub-campuses and granting affiliations to private colleges.

All the sub-campuses that were established during Kamran’s tenure have been declared illegal, the report stated. Between 2007 and 2015, UoS granted affiliations to 572 colleges, many of which existed only on paper. Further, a number of affiliations were given without proper approval from the statutory bodies.

The report also went on to say that Kamran issued a notification on June 5, 2015 permitting the Lahore sub-campus to commence BS and MPhil in biochemistry and BS in biotechnology. This was in spite of the fact that these programmes were not taught at UoS’ main campus.

Two former chairmen of the UoS Affiliation Committee wishing to remain anonymous revealed that the committee was used to merely stamp papers. Often their recommendations were changed, while Kamran dealt with the owners of private colleges and sub-campuses directly.



Sources also added that Kamran had been acting registrar for three years, the entire term for permanent registrar. Also by using his political influence, he succeeded in being appointed as acting registrar a second time.

Responding to the allegations made against him, former vice chancellor Dr Akram Chaudhry said that HEC has no right to audit an autonomous body; it is a provincial subject.

“Earlier, the internal audit and CMIT cleared me during their investigation. Former chairman of HEC Dr Mukhtar went against me to launch an inquiry, after I applied for the post of chairman at the commission,” he expressed.

“I incurred the wrath and fury of local MPs through my transparent policies, which is why they do not want me to become vice chancellor for the third time,” he maintained. He stated that the audit did not accuse him of corruption, only procedural mistakes were pointed out. As for the affiliation, I did not exploit my powers and did what the affiliation committee recommended, he stressed.

He added that all the appointments and administrative decisions were approved by the UoS Syndicate.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2018.