LAHORE – The debate over the degree of Director General of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore, Shahzad Saleem has taken a twist after the supreme court initially took up and later dropped the case concerning the matter.
However, the leading Pakistani paper which initially blew the whistle about the alleged fake degree of NAB biggie seems to have overlooked a key evidence substantiating that the degree of Shahzad Saleem was not fake and was recognized by the Higher Education Commission (HEC).
A report carried by the said paper claimed that the degree issued by the Al-Khair University to DG NAB was fake as it was written in a Calibri font which was not available commercially at the time of issuance of degree in 2002. It also said that HEC invalidated the degree – a stance which is in flagrant contradiction with facts as the degree was actually in Arial font.
The Higher Education Commission, in its official press release issued in August 2018, explicitly mentioned that the degrees awarded to the students till 2009 were recognized by the body.
“Degrees of all students enrolled up to April 30, 2009 including the graduates studied at affiliated colleges/campuses will be recognised by HEC subject to fulfilment of all codal formalities and in line with rules and regulations,’ the regulator stated on August 31.
It also mentioned that degrees of students enrolled and studied after October 17, 2011 at main campus Bhimber, AJ&K will also be recognised.
With HEC’s official stance, the allegation regarding the fake degree of DG NAB seems shallow as Saleem Shehzad secured his degree in 2002 – much before 2009, when the issue of AL-Khair University came to light.
Moreover, what bolsters the stance of DG NAB regarding his verified degree is HEC itself, which in its meeting on March 31, 2009, decided that it would not recognise degrees issued by the varsity to students which had been admitted to the university or its affiliated institutions after April 30, 2009.
The Al-Khair University had been established under the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Act 1994 and the Director General of NAB got the degree from the same institute.
Amid a whispering campaign about the degree of NAB official, the anti-graft body released the ‘original’ degree of Shahzad Saleem, saying the one on social media was doctored by ‘corrupt’ elements to make the NAB official’s credentials controversial.
The degree issued by NAB is printed in the Arial font instead of the Calibri font – as mentioned initially- confirming that there was an element of ‘photoshop’ in the campaign against the accountability watchdog as Arial font was available commercially at the time of issuance.
The degree officially issued details that NAB DG did M.Sc from the said university in 2002, much before the HEC spring into action and cast doubts over the degrees issued by the varsity.
NAB also suggested that the degree was verified as shown in the picture below in 2015, contrary to what’s being reported on the mainstream media.
Another confirmation about the veracity of Shahzad Saleem’s degree is a reply by HEC issued in June 2018, clearly mentioning that the degree was attested by the Peshawar centre of HEC which had attested 8 degrees in total at the regional centre.
Apparently the whole debate over the degree fiasco of DG NAB Lahore seems to be a well-planned campaign to discredit the investigator who is deeply involved in the probe against the president of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz and senior bureaucrats who were a lynchpin to the former regime.
