PHC directs FIA to produce record

 Fake degree case

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday directed officials of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to submit the record and a proper reply in a bail petition against the arrest of an assistant professor of the Bacha Khan University in a fake degree case.

The FIA officials failed to produce the record when a single bench headed by PHC Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel started hearing the case. The chief justice observed that three notices had been issued to the FIA for producing record of the case, but they failed to do that.

The PHC chief justice asked assistant director, FIA, Shahid Ilyas and Investigation Officer Asfandyar to provide record within three days about the FIR against Assistant Professor Dr Fawad Jan and his subsequent arrest.

The FIA officials informed the bench that they wanted to submit the record on time, but the petitioner had also filed a case under Section 22A of CrPC in the subordinate court for registration of an FIR against them and thus the submission of record was delayed.

During the hearing, the petitioner’s lawyers, Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Barrister Amir Chamkani, stated that the FIA officials, on an unnamed complaint, started investigation against the PhD degree of Assistant Professor Fawad Jan and finally declared his degree, which he had obtained from California, US, through the company named Axact, as fake.

The lawyers stated that the FIA had no jurisdiction and powers to verify the degrees of professors because the mandate about verification of degrees in the province rests with the provincial government and its agencies.

They said Shahid Ilyas, Assistant Director FIA and Asfandyar, investigation officer, had misused powers by investigating the degree and then lodging the FIR and arresting the petitioner.

An FIA official said they had registered the FIR against Dr Fawad Jan on the basis of an inquiry in which he was found guilty of having a fake doctorate degree. He explained that the accused had secured job in the Bacha Khan University on the basis of the Ph D degree that he obtained from the “non-existent” Paramount University California, US, through the controversial firm, Axact.The FIA official said they had formally probed the matter and the case was registered against him after they gathered concrete proof that his degree was a fake.