Principal’s office tries to swindle student

Graduate told to pay for subsidised car, come to CM House for ceremony, speak to Qamar Zaman Kaira.


Fawad Shah October 30, 2010

KARACHI: The principal’s office of the Karachi Medical and Dental College (KMDC) has been accused by one of its former students of a financial scam worth Rs185,000 and impersonating Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas and Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira on the pretext of a reward for topping the exams.

Sidra Shakeel, currently working as a house officer at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, received a phone call from the office of the principal of the institution from where she had graduated with a distinction in medicine. “Since you have topped [the exams from] the college, the Sindh chief minister is going to award you a gold medal,” she was informed over the telephone by Farman, the personal assistant to the KMDC principal.

She was asked to collect from the college a letter so that she could enter the Chief Minister House along with her parents for a ceremony.

Sidra had passed her MBBS exams in 2010 with a distinction. She beat all the students from her own college and came second among the students of all medical colleges affiliated with the University of Karachi.

“My daughter was really excited after receiving the call,” said her mother, Dr Talat Shakeel while talking to The Express Tribune at her flat in Askari IV.

Sidra’s mother also talked to the clerk and he repeated the entire details to her as well. “He also gave me a number and said that it was Qamar Zaman Kaira’s, who wanted to talk to all the [successful] children,” said Dr Talat. Sidrah’s father is Colonel Shakeel, a serving army officer, but he was not at home when the mother and daughter received the ‘good news’.

They rang the number for ‘Qamar Zaman Kaira’ who congratulated them and then offered them a lucrative package.

“The ‘Kaira’ informed us that the government had announced a prize package for the two kids who had topped the MBBS and BDS [exams],” said Sidra’s mother, who had spoken with the man. According to the package, the student could choose between a Cultus car for Rs172,000 or a Vitz car for Rs185,000.

“We got really excited after being offered the package,” said Dr Talat, who herself is an MBBS doctor, but currently a homemaker. But the problem was that they did not have enough money for either package, which they were told they had to avail before the ceremony at the CM House.

“I told ‘Qamar Zaman Kaira’ that we did not have enough money but I could pay just Rs70,000,” she said. “It was an attractive offer and after all we have received an official call from the office of the principal of the Karachi Medical and Dental College.”

Sidra and her mother were so excited that they collected all the cash that they had and headed to the nearby bank to deposit the money in the account and they did not even bother to give it a second thought.

When they reached the bank, we received a call from the man who had been introduced by the college staff as Qamar Zaman Kaira. “He requested us to hand the cell phone to the bank manager [so he could speak to him].”

In the bank

The man on the phone asked the bank manager to deposit the money in Account No. 52303608096901 owned by someone called Waseem Hussain.

“I asked the manager whether he knew it was Kaira,” recounted Dr Talat. The manager retorted, “How am I supposed to know that he is Kaira? You gave me the cell phone and asked me to talk to ‘Kaira’.”

At this point, Dr Talat and Sidra grew suspicious and asked a friend of her husband to inquire whether the man was actually Kaira or not.

A relative and family friend, Colonel Tahir, who had served as an SSP in the police department, tried ‘Kaira’s’ number many times but no one picked up. “They had called us over 30 times within a few hours [pressing us to deposit the money],” said Dr Talat. “But they did not receive Tahir’s calls.”

Dr Talat and Sidra decided to pay the college a visit before depositing the money.

At the college

On their way to the college, Colonel Tahir found out through his sources that the person who was posing as Qamar Zaman Kaira was someone from Lahore.

When they reached the office, PA Farman handed them a letter of appreciation signed by the principal.

“I kept on asking why he had fooled us and why he was trying to dodge us by giving a fake number,” said Dr Talat. “I started talking rudely to him.”

Sidra and the other girl Batool, who had topped the dental college or BDS exams, stood by silently. PA Farman maintained that the principal had given him the number.

Later, the family discovered that there was no ceremony planned at CM House. “We were not allowed to talk to the principal and his PA kept saying that he had nothing to do with the CM House invitation and the principal had asked him to do everything,” Dr Talat said.

The colonel and his family believe that the college’s administration had tried to fool them into giving up their money.

For his part, Farman assured the family that had they deposited the money in the fake account, “the college would have reimbursed it”.

The Express Tribune made several attempts to contact KMDC Principal Prof Waqar H Kazmi on Thursday, first via text message with requests for his comment on the situation and then repeated phone calls, which he did not receive.

An appointment was set up at the college for this reporter to meet him Friday morning, but the principal refused to comment or meet.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30th, 2010.

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