Daily Times

An accountability court on Tuesday granted 10-day physical remand of Sargodha University’s former vice chancellor Dr Muhammad Akram Chaudhary along with the varsity’s former registrar Brigadier (r) Rao Jamil Asghar to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in a case pertaining to the establishment of illegal sub-campuses under the Public Private Partnership Policy.

Judge Syed Najamul Hassan Bukhari, while hearing the case, also granted the remand of SU Lahore Chief Executive Officer Mian Javed, SU Lahore Administration Director Muhammad Akram, SU Mandi Bahauddin CEO Waris Nadeem and his partner Naeem Mukhtar.

In the court, NAB prosecutor Waris Ali Janjua argued SU former VC Dr Muhammad Akram Chaudhary allegedly received millions as bribe, misused his emergency powers, rejected recommendations of the university affiliation committee and observations of the Higher Education Department and the Planning & Development Department while establishing illegal sub-campuses.

The bureau’s prosecutor had requested the court to grant 15-day physical remand of the six accused.

The court accepted their request and granted 10-day physical remand of the accused. The court also ordered that all the six accused be produced before the court again on October 18.

Earlier this week, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar while hearing a suo motu case on a petition of the students of private campuses of the university at the Supreme Court’s Lahore Registry, had directed NAB to complete probe into the issues of the sub-campuses of SU within a week and submit its report.

Consequently, NAB booked the management of the Lahore and Mandi Bahauddin campuses for jeopardising the future of students by not taking the university-conducted examinations, making excess admissions, issuing fake documents to the students including transcripts, no-objection certificates and registration cards, committing financial embezzlement and causing a loss of millions of rupees to the public exchequer.

On the other hand, SU decided to safeguard the academic needs, rights and future of the enrolled students in its private sub-campuses in Lahore and Mandi Bahauddin following the arrest of top management of the sub-campuses including Dr Muhammad Akram Chaudhary.

The decision was made in a meeting chaired by SU VC Dr Ishtiaq Ahmad with the deans, directors and heads of all faculties and departments in attendance.

The meeting further assured the enrolled students and their parents that they would not face any academic gap in their educational career.

The university will leave no stone unturned in safeguarding the academic needs and rights of the students, the meeting resolved.

Published in Daily Times, October 10^th 2018.