FIA summons ISRA varsity officials

Move comes after HEC bars university from offering admissions

ISLAMABAD:

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has formally launched an inquiry into the alleged issuance of fake degrees to hundreds of students by the ISRA University Islamabad campus.

According to the document available with The Express Tribune, the inquiry has been started by the anti-corruption wing of the agency after receiving a complaint from ISRA University Vice-Chancellor Dr Nazir Ashraf Laghari, who has alleged that a large number of fake degrees have been issued by unauthorised persons on the Islamabad campus of the university.

Earlier, the Higher Education Commission banned ISRA University from offering new admissions in all three campuses after internal rifts between ISRA University Vice- Chancellor Dr Nazir Laghari and members of the Qazi family, who have allegedly occupied the Karachi and Islamabad campuses of the university, surfaced.

The regulatory body had also warned the ISRA University of the cancellation of its no-objection certificate (NOC) if it failed to resolve issues within one month.

Sources said that the FIA has summoned Hameedullah Qazi, Waliullah Qazi, Dr Umar Ali Khan, Col (retd) Arshad Ali, Col (retd) Iftikhar Hassan, Dr Roshan Bhatti, Tufail Khan Marwat and Asad Qureshi, who have been accused of issuing fake degrees to hundreds of students against a heft sum, to record their statement According to sources, the accused officials issued degrees in various disciplines without the approval of the apex decision-making body of the varsity.

The sources ISRA University Vice- Chancellor Dr Laghari has accused the Qazi family of violating the charter of the university by getting the university degrees printed from a private publisher instead of the National Security Printing Company (NSPC) and handing them over to the students.

Laghari has also accused the Qazi family of illegally occupying properties of the university.

As per the HEC law, universities or any degree awarding institutions must ensure that degrees and final official transcripts etc must be printed from NSPC.

The Ministry of Finance has also stated that the government has not mandated or declared any other printing press in Pakistan for printing and manufacturing of any type of security documents, degrees and other than the NSPC.

The complaint stated that the accused, through fabricated and unauthorised agreement, hired a private security company and illegally encroached the Islamabad campus of the university with the help of security guards claiming themselves as the officials of the university and later engaged in embezzling millions of rupees from the university’s Islamabad campus.

The complainant further said that ISRA university is a legitimate institution established under an act of the Sindh Assembly and administrated by its ‘governing body’ the supreme body of the university headed by the VC of the university and the same university has three campuses main campus at Hyderabad and others at Karachi and Islamabad all run by governing body and VC as per university act.

As per the document, the ISRA university governing board is comprised of a Sindh High Court’s sitting judge, a representative of the HEC, a Sindh government representative and others.

As per the ‘university act,’ the governing body is responsible for the running of the affairs of the university with mutual consultation and consensus.

Earlier, the SHC directed Dr Laghari to continue working as VC and run all legitimate affairs of the university.

In the complaint, Dr Laghari also said that Hammadullah Qazi, Waliullah Qazi and their aides Dr Roshan Bhatti, Dr Omer Ali Khan, Arshad Ali, Iftikhar Hussain, Tufail Marwat and others have nothing to do with the university as the management has terminated services of some of the officials.