June 28, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 27,1424

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RAWALPINDI, June 27: The Punjab university has declared the bachelor degrees of five employees of the district courts fake, an official source told Dawn on Friday.

The district and sessions judge, Dost Mohammad Khemta, had ordered an investigation to check the validity of the BA degrees of 45 stenographers, readers and ahlmads before considering them for promotion on the graduation quota. However, the Punjab university validated 40 degrees and declared the remaining five fake, the source said.

He said the district and sessions judge had referred the case of fake degrees to the judge of the anti-corruption court, Mohammad Aslam Khan. He had also sent show-cause notices to the five men.

The source said one of the readers, Tahir Shah, had completed his FA in 1992. However, interestingly, the BA degree which he had produced before the judge in connection with his promotion showed that he had completed his graduation the very next year in 1993. On this the court asked him to point out any university in the country that awarded a bachelor degree to a student in one year.

He said the persons holding fake degrees were still performing their duties on their old posts.