PU officials warned over fake degrees

Varsity seeks time to verify credentials of 95 candidates of bar council elections

LAHORE:

Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan came down hard on the Punjab University administration on Tuesday over alleged involvement of its staffers in preparing forged degrees.

“I will send to jail for contempt the vice chancellor, registrar and other officials of the Punjab University if their involvement is established in such criminal activity,” he warned.

A deputy controller of the university informed the court that after examining the degree of a winning bar council election candidate, Jameel Asghar Bhatti, it was found that the admission form had been issued with the name Javed Iqbal and roll number to Jameel Asghar Bhatti. Similarly, in second part of LLB, the admission form was issued with the name Rai Khalid Bashir Khan but the result issued with name of Jameel Asghar Bhatti.

The official informed the court that when they examined Muhammad Shahid Rana’s degree, they found the whole page of the gazette torn.

The deputy controller told the court that the VC had constituted a committee for minutely probing into the verification of degrees. A meeting of the university syndicate has also been called on December 8 where the forged degrees’ matter will be discussed and the court will be informed about the decision taken, she said.

The university said it had verified 10 more candidates’ degrees and it required more time to check the qualification of all 95 candidates of the Punjab Bar Council elections held on November 28.

The chief justice remarked that it appeared that degrees had been sold.

“Tell the court when bogus degrees will be cancelled,” CJ Khan asked the PU administration. “No respect will be given to those who are actually criminals but working on seats of respected teachers,” he warned.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2020.