National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) Director General (DG) Zulfiqar Ahmed has been dismissed from service over fake degree, according to well-placed sources. The development came days after the IHC dismissed his plea against the Higher Education Commission (HEC)’s decision to cancel his equivalent certificate. Taking disciplinary action in line with the IHC’s verdict and unsatisfactory response to the show cause notice served on Ahmed, Nadra terminated his serves, the sources added. In 2018, Nadra directed him, among others, to get his degree verified. He provided “verification of degrees in the sealed envelope” to HEC. This pretended as if the verification certificates had been issued by the universities concerned and handed to him in a sealed envelope for submission to HEC, according to The News report. The HEC could only bother to check that both institutions were recognised degree-awarding institutions as per the record of UNESCO and the USA’s Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). Regarding the verification of degrees, the HEC relied on the sealed envelopes handed to it by the applicant, Zulfiqar. It was not further checked by the university and provisional verification letters were issued. A subsequent letter from HEC issued in 2021 declared the verification certificates ‘authentic and genuine.’