Daily Times

LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Monday arrested the top former management of Sargodha University including its former vice chancellor, registrar, chief executive officer and administration director of the Lahore and Mandi Bahauddin sub-campuses over their alleged involvement in establishing illegal sub-campuses under public-private partnership policy.

The NAB arrested SU former VC Dr Muhammad Akram Chaudhary, former registrar of the university Brigadier (r) Rao Jamil Asghar, Lahore sub-campus CEO Mian Javed, Lahore Administration Director Muhammad Akram, Mandi Bahauddin CEO Waris Nadeem Warraich and his partner Naeem Mukhtar Bajwa.

NAB will present the accused for remand today (Tuesday) before court.

The arrest was made by the country’s top accountability watchdog following directions given by the Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar on Saturday to complete its inquiry while hearing a suo motu case on a petition of the students of private campuses of the university at the Lahore Registry.

The chief justice had also directed the NAB director general to hear the current SU VC Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed who had put his job at stake by exposing the sub-campuses scam involving influential people and complete probe into the issues of the sub-campuses of SU within a week and submit its report.

NAB summoned the former management of the two sub-campuses to record their statement in connection with the private sub-campuses scam while Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed and registrar Fahadullah also recorded their statements.

The accused were arrested by NAB inside its Lahore office in the light of proofs presented by the university administration.

The HEC audit report had revealed that five sub-campuses were established in complete violation of the Public Private Partnership Policy while Lahore and Mandi Bahauddin campuses were established by the former VC using emergency powers vested in him.

Among its most revealing findings is the scale of corruption involving affiliated colleges and private campuses, which have sold degrees for cheap to thousands of students over a span of several years.

Earlier, in February, 2018, NAB, in its executive board meeting, presided over by NAB Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal, had ordered an inquiry into serious irregularities and financial corruption on the direction of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Higher Education against Muhammad Akram Chaudhry and other staffers.

It is worth mentioning that Dr Ahmed exposed the unlawful constitution of the five sub-campuses before the court. The private campuses had been turned into money-making machines, cheating the poor and lower middle-class parents and playing with the future of youth, explained the VC adding that the Public-Private Partnership Policy was prepared in a haphazard manner without safeguarding the interest of a public sector university and completion of legal obligations.

It may be added that the University Syndicate barred these five sub-campuses from new admissions upon academic irregularities, mismanagement and failure to abide by the mandatory standards set by the Higher Education Commission while the degree issuance process has been started by the university in order to facilitate and safeguard the academic future of the sub-campuses’ students.

Published in Daily Times, October 9^th 2018.