ISLAMABAD – The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Monday arrested the top former management of the Sargodha University including its former VC, registrar, CEO and director administration 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 the former vice chancellor Sargodha University, Dr Muhammad Akram Chaudhary, former Registrar of the University Brig (r) Rao Jamil Asghar, CEO Lahore sub-campus Mian Javed, Director Administration Lahore sub-campus Muhammad Akram, CEO, Mandi Bahauddin sub-campus Waris Nadeem Warriach and his partner Naeem Mukhtar Bajwa.
The NAB will present the accused for remand on Tuesday (Today) before the NAB court. The arrest was made by the country’s top accountability watchdog following the 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 DG NAB to hear the current VC, Dr Ishtiaq Ahmad 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 the Sargodha University within a week and submit its report.
The NAB summoned former VC Sargodha University, former Registrar, and CEO’s of the two sub-campuses to record their statement in connection with the private sub-campuses scam while the Vice Chancellor Sargodha University Dr Ishtiaq Ahmad and Registrar Fahad Ullah also recorded their statements.
The accused were arrested by the 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 Public Private Partnership Policy while Lahore and Mandi Bahauddin campuses were established by the then VC Dr Akram using emergency powers vested in him U/S 13(3) of the University of Sargodha Ordinance, 2002, in violation of Public Private Partnership Policy and even without obtaining the necessary approval from the syndicate and relevant bodies.
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 Feb, 2018, the National Accountability Bureau, in its executive board meeting, presided over by NAB Chairman Justice (Retd) 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 former Vice Chancellor University of Sargodha, Chaudhry Akram and other staffers.
It is worth mentioning here that Vice Chancellor Sargodha University Dr Ishtiaq Ahmad exposed the unlawful constitution of the five sub-campuses, including at Lahore and Mandi Bahauddin 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 HEC 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.
