ISLAMABAD: The issue regarding the allegedly fake result of the former Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) director general (DG) has become a bone of contention between the Sarhad University and Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).

On Thursday, Sarhad University Vice Chancellor (VC) Dr Salimur Rehman held a press conference and alleged that PMDC’s registrar has been dragging the issue unnecessarily to get back for some problems he may have with the NHS ministry and its former DG.

Earlier, the Supreme Court’s human rights council (HRC) ordered PMDC to conduct an inquiry into the case.

Council maintains Dr Aurakzai was issued ‘fake result’

The council concluded that Sarhad University had allegedly favoured the former NHS DG, Dr Jehanzeb Aurakzai, and issued him a fake result card.

Moreover, the inquiry committee also claimed that the signature of the former DG did not match with those on the examinations’ attendance sheets, which showed that someone else had appeared in the exams on the Dr Aurakzai’s behalf.

The inquiry report said that the university had refused to hand over the answer sheets, claiming that they had been destroyed.

During his press conference, Dr Salim blamed the PMDC registrar for becoming a party in the issue and unnecessarily forcing the university to take action against the former NHS DG.

“We cooperated with the inquiry committee and provided all the available records. The inquiry committee not only suggested to prevent the university from undertaking further admissions, but also decided to send the case to FIA and NAB,” he said.

The Sarhad University VC further clarified that Dr Aurakzai has yet to pass six courses and that the university never issued a degree or academic performance certification to him.

However, at another point, Dr Salim admitted that two marks sheets were issued to Mr Aurakzai; in the first one, he was declared as ‘pass’ in one subject, while in the second he was declared ‘absent’. But they were both provisional mark sheets, the VC added.

Dr Salim said that it was an error and went on to say that there was another student who was declared ‘pass’ despite being absent from the exam. “There are 15,000 students, so this kind of errors can occur,” he said.

He further said that the answer sheets of the last semester were handed over to PMDC, but the answer sheets of the semesters before that had been destroyed, because of an issued of storage space.

Meanwhile, PMDC Registrar Dr Amjad has termed the press conference as “just an attempt to defend Mr Aurakzai” and the violation of rules by the university.

While talking to Dawn, Dr Amjad said that the case is not as simple as the university and Dr Aurakzai have made is seem.

“Sarhad University VC tried to blame PMDC, rather than clarifying the allegations against the university.

How can the university pass the former DG when the PMDC itself noticed that the university issued another mark sheet, in which the candidate was declared absent,” he said.

The committee concluded that someone else sat the exam in place of Dr Aurakzai, the PMDC registrar said, adding that this is why the university was refusing to give out the answer

sheets while claiming that they have been destroyed.

He recalled that, according to the rules, the universities have to keep the answer sheets for at least three years.

“Moreover, Dr Aurakzai is an government servant, but he did not obtain a no-objection certificate for his Masters in Public Health (MPH), which is another violation of the rules,” he said.

However, while talking to Dawn, Dr Aurakzai said that it was incorrect to assume that the rules were relaxed for him.

“I am an FRCS and I do not even require an MPH for any promotion. I could not appear in many exams because of different engagements, but a mafia has been trying to defame me,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2014