SIALKOT: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has sealed a Sialkot-based private university “Islamic University of Pakistan, Sialkot” here after arresting its Vice Chancellor Javaid Cheema and his two sons. NAB has also seized all the record of the university besides initiating investigations against the suspects.
According to the senior NAB officials, a special team of NAB (operational unit) Lahore raided the university and arrested its owner/vice chancellor Javaid Cheema and his two sons (names no disclosed) besides sealing the university in a big financial and fraud scam of issuing the fake academic degrees (from matriculation to Ph.D level) to thousands of people by extorting millions of rupees from them.
In September 2015, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) had declared the status of this private university as fake by publishing advertisements in Urdu and English dailies.
The future of the all the male and female students, who are to be in thousands, is at stake due to prevailing confusion after the sealing of the university.
This university had been running in Sialkot for the last several years but the Higher Education Commission (HEC) had declared it a fake university in September 2015.
In September 2015, the Higher Education Commission (HEC), in its advertisement published in national dailies, had informed the people that “Islamic University of Pakistan, Sialkot” was not allowed to impart formal education through any mode at any level and it was not recognized by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan. HEC had advised the parents and students not to seek admission neither at its Principal Seat nor at any of its campuses/ affiliated colleges. Degrees of students taking admission in this University will not be recognized by HEC.
According to some officials of Sialkot education department, the accused owner/ Vice Chancellor of this university Javaid Cheema had been a lower class employee at Sialkot education department, which had been terminated from his job due to his fake educational degrees.
They added that after being terminated from his governmental job in Sialkot education department, the accused had established this university several years ago.
The dozens of the colleges across the country were stated to be affiliated with this university in Sialkot , which had been issuing the degrees of matriculation, intermediate, BA, B.Ed, MA, M.Ed, LLB, M.Phil and PhD, engineering and Aloom-e-Sharqia for the last several years.
It was also learnt that accused Javaid Cheema, the VC of this university was allegedly charging heavily the students for issuing these academic degrees as per their desire. Accused had allegedly extorted millions of rupees from the students, in this regard.
Some local officials of Sialkot education department revealed that several inquiries against this university and its accused owner/ VC had already been lying pending at the NAB and FIA offices in Lahore and Islamabad due to the political influence of the accused. They added that the accused had already developed his strong contacts with the senior NAB and FIA officials due to which he had been lying “safe and sound” since long.
They said that several corruption cases were also registered at several police stations in Sialkot and Gujranwala against the accused Javaid Cheema for issuing the fake academic degrees to the people, the education department officials added.
Meanwhile, several affected students and their parents including Muhammad Bashir, Khalid Mehmood, Ghulam Hussain, Muhammad Iqbal, Zulfiqar Ali, Abdul Rauf Mughal, Muhammad Yaseen, Sabir Hussain, Zeeshan Waris, Ch. Muhammad Iqbal, Umer Nawaz, Jameela Parveen, Rukhsana Khalid, Razia Bibi and Sakeena Bibi have expressed grave concern over this situation and the future of this private university after being sealed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) after being declared as a fake university by the HEC. They have urged the Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif to probe into the matter to save the educational future, what they said thousands of the students, from the clutches of this university management, in this regard.
