Forged visa documents: HEC probe body recommends removal of law officer

ED asked to register FIR against Hafiz Aqeel.

Riazul Haq June 07, 2013

The law officer, Hafiz Aqeel, was suspended after he was caught using forged documents. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD:

An inquiry committee at The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has recommended the management to fire the law officer and register an FIR against him for forgery and embezzlement.

The law officer, Hafiz Aqeel, was suspended after he was caught using forged documents to apply for British visas for himself and two other persons to accompany him on an ‘official visit’. According to HEC sources, the two-member committee which was formed to probe this issue has found Aqeel guilty of implicating a government institution in a deceptive act.

Sources said when the British High Commission sent a letter to the HEC in March for verification of the three persons seeking visas, all the documents were found to have been forged. They said Aqeel had forged no objection certificates, invitations, employee certificates and all other documents required for visas except for their passports.

“Aqeel forged documents to pass offf the other two persons as HEC staff members who had been invited by officials in the UK for a conference,” said a source in the HEC Human Resource Management department. He used the HEC letterhead and forged the signatures of two of his colleagues to issue a travel grant of over Rs0.5 million.

Aqeel confessed to the forgery after the letter was received to the HEC executive director (ED). The HEC suspended him, formed a two-member inquiry committee and sent a charge-sheet to Aqeel.

According to the inquiry committee’s recommendations, the FIR should be registered for misusing public money and the Government of Pakistan’s office. It has also suggested to the ED that the amount be recovered from Aqeel.

The two persons who were to move to the UK are said to be Aqeel’s brother and another close relative. The Express Tribune contacted HEC ED Dr Mukhtar Ahmed for his version but he said he had yet to see the recommendations so he could not comment on the issue.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 8^th, 2013.