Ex-VC BZU arrested for misuse of power

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday arrested former vice chancellor of Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU), Multan, Syed Khawaja Alqama, on charges of misuse of authority and cheating the public at large by illegally opening a sub campus of the university in Lahore.
Syed Alqama was produced in the Accountability Court handcuffed. Besides, Director Lahore Campus BZU Hamza Munir has also been arrested. According to the NAB, the action has been taken by Director General, NAB, Multan, in pursuance of policy for speedy disposal of mega corruption cases involving influential accused persons.
The arrested accused persons will be produced before the court for physical remand for further investigation.
Brief facts of the case are that the accused Syed Khawaja Alqama, Malik Munir Hussain, Munir Bhatti and his son Hamza Munir in connivance with each other opened a sub campus at Lahore in violation of the existing law and rules and policies.
The accused, in his capacity of vice chancellor, illegally signed the Deed of Agreement by exercising the emergency powers vested with his office while, on the other hand, power to enter into such an agreement vests with the University Syndicate and the same was never delegated to the vice chancellor for this specific purpose.
The accused, in connivance with the Registrar BZU Multan, issued the No Objection Certificate (NoC) to M/s West Continental Group (WCG) without getting approval from the University Syndicate and observance of instructions given
by the Higher Education Commission, Higher Education Department and the Finance Department, Government of Punjab.
The proprietors of the M/s West Continental Group running the sub campus of BZU at Lahore thus collected an amount of Rs925 million as admission fees and other dues, etc, through cheating and fraud.