ISLAMABAD, Sept 12: The Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) has withdrawn all its BCS students from various branches of Petroman Institute after its investigation committee found an "apparent financial scam" in the administration of the institution , sources privy to the committee told Dawn.

The AIOU administration had been receiving complaints from its BCS students studying at various institutes of Petroman regarding unavailability of teaching staff. The administration of the institute had even failed to pay salaries to the teaching staff due to which the teachers had boycotted classes for the last few months.

The AIOU had formed the committee a month ago. The complaints had come from the BCS students studying at the Petroman institutes in Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Lahore, the sources said.

Officials said the AIOU had been affiliated with the Petroman for quite some time. According to an agreement, the bachelor of computer science (BCS) students of the AIOU were being taught at the Petroman for which the university paid 60 per cent of the students fee to the Petroman.

The committee, which comprised a number of professors of the AIOU's computer science department, faced an awkward situation when they contacted the Petroman Institute located in Blue Area, Islamabad.

The sources said the principal of the institute, Mr Afzaal, told the committee that his staff had not been receiving salaries for the last several months. He said he had contacted the headquarters in Karachi on the phone but there was nobody to attend the call.

The principal also showed a letter to the AIOU committee which he had sent to the secretary, ministry of petroleum, during the third week of August. In the letter, he had informed the secretary that he would close the office as he had no money to bear the expenditure due to unavailability of funds from the headquarters for the last almost six months.

In reply to a question, an AIOU official said the university had withdrawn all its 60 BCS students from the institute and accommodated them in other institutions in various sectors of Islamabad.

Some of the affected students on condition of anonymity told Dawn that the AIOU administration had constituted the committee after they had threatened it of protest. They said their study had been affected due to unavailability of teachers for the last two months.