SIALKOT, Oct 16: The district administration has smashed an organized gang involved in preparing fake degrees and arrested the ring leader and two other members.

This was claimed by District Nazim Mian Naeem Javed while talking to newsmen on Saturday. DCO Syed Tahir Raza Naqvi was also present.

The Nazim said the police raided various places under his supervision on Friday night and arrested the ring leader and two other members of the gang, which had its roots across the province.

The police had also seized a large number of fake degrees of Phd, MA, BA, intermediate and matriculation of all boards in the country, the Punjab University, the Allama Iqbal Open University and the AJK University, besides many other private institutions. They had sold these spurious credentials to the people.

Replying to a question, the Nazim said the officials of the local education department and most of the institutions mentioned above were directly or indirectly involved in this business. Their names had already been put on the Exit Control List.

He said the district government was led to the gang when an applicant for the post of a PTC teacher presented fake degrees to the education department's special recruiting committee. Suspecting his credentials, the committee quizzed him after which he informed the officials about the gang through which he had purchased the degrees.

The DCO told newsmen that the government had advertised for the vacancies of 593 teachersduring the current fiscal for which more than 8,000 people applied. "We have serious doubts that several applicants have applied for the posts by producing fake degrees, which we have decided to verify from the relevant boards and universities," he added.

He said the recruitment process was to be completed before Oct 15, 2005, which had now been delayed.

Meanwhile, the Nazim said the local government had contacted the country's educational boards, colleges and private and government universities and sought their cooperation in this regard.