Inquiries underway on dubious degree allegations

Former VC says can’t be held responsible for everything

ISLAMABAD

Chairman of Punjab Higher Education Commission Dr Nizamuddin is under scrutiny for alleged dubious degrees issued under his watch when he was Vice Chancellor of Gujrat University, a probe shining light on irregularities in education sector culminated at fake degree scandals of Axact-run universities.

Two separate inquiries, including the one initiated by Higher Education Commission on a complaint from a university’s employee, are underway to determine the veracity of allegations whereas an internal fact-finding committee of the university held Dr Nizamuddin and others responsible.

Current vice chancellor, Dr Zia-ul-Qayyum, while talking to The News, admitted occurrence of irregularities in past including the disappearance of some record. But, he said, the probe is still far from fixing the responsibility. “For the sake of justice and in the best interest of university prestige, a proper enquiry is recommended to finalize the case,” reads the last line of the fact-finding report obtained by The News.

Dr Nizamuddin is facing allegations of obliging two females. One was migrated from a dubious local college, granted a master degree in information technology and later inducted in the university.

The other female was instrumental in this scheme of thing and she subsequently received gold medal in M Phil exam held under her own supervision as head of semester system exam and promoted to the next rank.  

In former case, the female was migrated from Chenab College of Information Technology, Gujrat, that was not authorized either to issue any transcript or degree. Her transcripts of clearing three semesters from the said college were recognized by the university for migration and enrolled in the fourth semester. The college later admitted before the fact-finding committee of the university set up after departure of Dr Nizamuddin that the transcript used for migration was dubious, a letter available with The News confirms.

This confession of the college is in contrast with the migration certificate issued by the lady deputy registrar of the university on the basis of that transcript and it was verified by the personal staff officer of then VC Dr Nizamuddin.

The female student was later awarded university degree of masters in Information Technology. A selection board headed by Dr Nizamuddin in February 2013 selected this dubious MIT degree-holder lady as deputy registrar (human resource) in the university. The other lady who was privy to all this malpractice not only received promotion from BS-18 to next scale but was also issued dubious M. Phil degree in Sociology through an exam she passed with distinction as gold medalist. Interestingly, this lady was enrolled in M Phil when she was working as Head Semester System Exams in examination branch thus appearing in exam under the administration headed by her.

As The News contacted Dr Nizamuddin for version, he explicitly didn’t deny these malpractices, however, pleading innocence on the grounds that there was a system working and he was not supposed to be aware of everything happening there.

Asked why he appointed the lady whose migration and transcript were manipulated, Dr Nizamuddin said the lady was given job as deputy registrar of human resource on the basis of her masters in Islamic studies, not of masters in information technology.

In the case of second lady who passed M Phil with gold medal while appearing in exam under her own administration, he said she was not the only person ‘improved’ qualification while serving in the same university.

Asked how many university employees upgraded their qualification, Dr Nizamuddin said: “There must be 150-200 such cases.”  Dr Zia-ul-Qayyum, current vice chancellor, upon contact some weeks back, said of the first lady that a fact finding inquiry held responsible right from Dr. Ziauddin down to the staff involved in the process but stopped short of fixing responsibility. 

Right now, two inquiries are in progress. One initiated by HEC is headed by Dr Ismail, Quality Assurance Consultant. Another has been set up on the recommendations of Dr Zia-ul-Qayyum.

This three-member inquiry team has Chairman Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education as its convener, DG Accreditation and Attestation HEC its member whereas a deputy registrar of Gujrat University will represent the university.