PESHAWAR, Aug 28: Fake educational degrees and national identity cards have been recovered from locals and Afghans, seeking verification of their documents by the authorities concerned, say official sources.

An official of the Peshawar-based camp office of the ministry of foreign affairs told Dawn that a number of locals had submitted fake certificates while seeking verification of their educational degrees for the purpose of applying for seeking visas of Gulf states.

Sources said that ever since the UAE made it compulsory to submit, at least, matric degree for applying to get visas on the unskilled labour quota, cases of fake degrees were detected during the scrutiny process.

“Matric degrees submitted by several applicants for verification were found fake during the scrutiny process,” said a well-placed official of the camp office of the ministry of foreign affairs.

Apart from the matric degrees, some of the aspirants seeking verification of their documents were detected with forged degrees of the professional colleges.

In one such instance, said the official, an Afghan was found with a bogus degree of the Khyber Medical College, Peshawar. The degree, said the official, was found fake when it was double checked with the authorities concerned of the University of Peshawar.

Misuse of the Pakistani identity cards was also found on the part of the Afghans seeking verification of their documents while fulfilling requirements to apply for Gulf states visa.