Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Despite all claims of transparency and merit, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) itself has verified degrees unlawfully and issued equivalence certificates against required fundamental legal criteria, Daily Times has learnt reliably.

According to the available documents, the HEC Attestation & Accreditation (A&A) wing issued equivalence of PhD to Dr Muhammad Arshad while ignoring its own policy.

The documents stated that Dr Muhammad Arshad was awarded PhD by Tsinghua University, China on July 11, 2013 while the commission granted him equivalence of PhD around six months advance on January 17, 2013.

“With the reference of your application dated December 19, 2012, it is informed that Tsinghua University, China is a chartered university of China. The HEC recongnises PhD in Biology degree held by you from the said university as equivalence to corresponding PhD degree in the relevant field from Pakistan,” reads a letter signed by HEC A&A Assistant Director Amna Qayyum.

As per HEC Act 2012, to formulate policies, guiding principles and priorities for higher education institutions for promotion of socio-economic development of the country was among the basic functions of the commission.

A senior official, wishing not to be named, said that to grant such equivalences was not provided in the commission’s policies.

“It was surprising that the HEC which is supposed to formulate policies for over 180 public sector universities, had defected his own policy,” he regretted.

Interestingly, the HEC itself admitted officially that without a degree, the provision of equivalence is out of question.

“The Higher Education Commission does not equate until the foreign PhD degree is issued to the graduate,” reads an email received from HEC Spokesperson Aayesha Ikram.

In another violation, the commission attested the BS (Hons) degree held by Abdul Majeed Ahmed Alduraywish at a time when the authenticity of his previous degrees remain questionable.

An official in the HEC privy to the matter said that Abdul Majeed Alduraywish does not have the equivalence certificate of Advanced Level education.

Inter Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) is supposed to issue the Ordinary Level and A-Level education equivalence certificates.

Moreover, as per sources, Alduraywish also has fake academic transcripts issued by Preston University, Islamabad.

Aayesha Ikram says that if any candidate has A-Level education, then the HEC attests higher educational degrees only in presence of original equivalence certificate granted by the IBCC.

This was not enough. The HEC awarded an equivalence certificate to a graduate of Muhammad Ali Jinnah University (MAJU) without taking into account the basic criteria set by the commission itself.

The documents revealed that Dr Hasnain Naqvi, had compeleted his MS in Telecom Engineering from MAJU in 2006 and PhD in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, from the University of Auckland. MAJU is now called the Capital University of Science & Technology.

Dr Hasnain Naqvi after obtaining 16 years’ qualification in Computer Science, enrolled himself for the MS degree in Telecom Engineering at MAJU without having an engineering degree.

When Daily Times approached the HEC’s media wing through an email to have their point of view on this sort of irregularity, it claimed, “There should be a relevant background of engineering for seeking admission into MS in Pakistan and the same is considered while awarding an equivalent.”

It further added that if an incumbent had a non-engineering background then keeping in view the educational system of the respective country, the HEC ensures that the university offers him/her deficiency courses at the time of enrollment and accordingly recognises the MS degree as equivalent to Master’s. Moreover, it is clearly mentioned in the equivalence letter that he/she needs to get an endorsement from the Pakistan Engineering Council for practicing the engineering professionally.

Published in Daily Times, April 20^th 2018.