Scam mars race for VCs

Contending professors duped by impersonators

LAHORE:

Several senior professors of public sectors universities have been defrauded by a group that had promised their appointment as vice chancellors, The Express Tribune has learnt.

According to sources, operatives of the group had acquired a room at the Executive Club of Punjab University and introduced themselves as members of a security agency. They told the professors that they were preparing reports about candidates for the post of VC.

The sources said several professors had contacted with the group members and paid millions of rupees to get a favourable report.

The group disappeared after extorting the money and the PU administration has lodged an FIR against it at the Muslim Town police station.

The police have arrested a member of the group and started investigations into the matter.

The sources said several professors had been deprived of millions of rupees in the scam after a members of the groups posed in the Punjab University as an investigation officers. They alleged that a candidate for the post of VC had also helped the suspects get a room in the PU.

The interviews of candidates for appointment as VCs of 25 public sector universities are under way and two phases of the process have been completed.

In the first phase, a search committee conducted interviews for engineering universities, followed by interviews of the candidates for the general public sector universities.

The third phase of interviews for the women's universities will begin this week.

The sources said the intelligence and security agencies also submitted reports about the candidates for the appointment.

A tough competition among the top professors of Punjab is taking place to head the government universities.

A number of PU professors, including the incumbent and former VCs, are among the candidates along with many renowned names of academic field from various universities.

The sources said the suspects had taken advantage of the competition to mint money.

A senior official of Punjab University said some candidates appeared ready to do everything for the appointment, so they had facilitated the fraudsters to stay at the Executive Club and also visited their room to get their support.

The official said some professors had paid money to the suspects and some from other cities had also met them during their stay at the PU.

He said the victims of the fraud were avoiding to come forward with the details to avoid embarrassment.

However, the fraud was exposed by a PU professor whose laptop was stolen by members of the gang. An FIR was subsequently lodged at the Muslim Town police station, according to a senior official of Punjab University. The official identified the suspect as Muhammad Shafique, a PU professor. Initial investigations revealed that Shafique had stayed at the PU Executive Club, where he falsely claimed to be a member of a secret agency.