LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will file a graft reference against the owners of private sub-campuses of Sargodha University within 3-4 weeks, the Director General NAB Lahore Saleem Shahzad informed the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday.
A two-member bench headed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar and comprising on Justice Ijazul Ahsan heard a suo moto case of private campuses of Sargodha University at the Lahore Registry of the Supreme Court.
During the hearing, the Director General NAB Saleem Shahzad submitted complete inquiry report of Sargodha University sub-campuses scam before the Court.
The director general NAB briefed the Court that private sub-campuses overcharged Rs 130 million from the students in the name of University fee. He said that NAB will recover overcharged amount from the owners and pay back to the affected students.
Saleem Shahzad further briefed the court that former Vice Chancellor (VC) Sargodha University Dr Akram Chaudhary and owners of private sub-campuses are in judicial custody of NAB.
The Court showed satisfaction after a briefing by the VC Sargodha University Dr Ishtiaq Ahmad, that in compliance of the Court’s order, the University has started the process of issuing official transcripts to the registered students of these campuses in order to facilitate and secure their academic future.
It may be added here that the private sub-campuses made huge amount of money by making access of admissions and caused a loss of millions of rupees to the University by non-compliance and non-payment of the University dues.
On November 15, the LHC rejected the bail pleas of the six suspects, including ex-VC Sargodha University Dr Akram Chaudhary, University’s former Registrar Brigadier (retd) Rao Jamil Asghar, CEO Lahore Sub-Campus Mian Javed, Director Administration Lahore Sub-Campus Muhammad Akram, CEO Mandi Bahauddin Sub-Campus Waris Nadeem and his partner Naeem Mukhtar. The court had observed that keeping in view evidence on record the petitioners could not be extended the benefit of bail.
Earlier in October, the High Education Commission (HEC) revoked the no-objection certificates (NOCs) of all private sub-campuses while endorsing the University Syndicate’s ban on them from admitting students in fall 2018. The Syndicate had barred all PPP sub-campuses from admissions for Session 2018 in its meeting held on September 15, 2018 as well as directed the University to take appropriate legal action against them for unlawfully issuing final transcripts and other documents.
