PESHAWAR, July 11: The crime cell of the Federal Investigation Agency has arrested a coordinator of a fake university and recovered bogus foreign university degrees and stamps of sensitive departments, official sources told Dawn on Thursday.

Some students of the Orient University have lodged complaints with the crime cell of the FIA asking it to take action against the administration for issuing them fake bachelor of computer science degrees, they said.

On Wednesday noon, the FIA team raided the university and arrested Ghulam Mohiuddin Sajid, the so-called coordinator of the university and recovered fake degrees of an American university and many blank pads and stamps of sensitive departments, official sources said.

Interestingly, on the address of 2-Gulmohar Lane, University Town, the college administration was running eight different types of institutes. They include Orient University, Graduate School of Management and Computer Sciences, International Institute of Medicine, Engineering and Technology, Sublime Survey, International Medicine Care and Development Centre, Orient Institute of Business Administration and Management, GSMCS Group of Colleges and OCG Consultants.

The FIA seized fake degrees of Pacific Southern University, Los Angles (California), USA, and bogus blank pads of Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission hospital and Capt Dr Yasmin Hussain of PINSTECH-Nilore, Rawalpindi.

Officials said that during the raid, 29 bogus stamps of these sensitive departments, fake educational institutions and Capt Dr Yasmin Hussain were also seized.

The students of these colleges had written in their complaint letters that they studied in the institute for three years and when they applied for higher studies, their degrees were rejected by the Peshawar University administration as these were not recognized by the Higher Education Commission.

“They paid about Rs200,000 each to the Orient College for the three years BCS degrees. Now all these students are appearing in the on-going part-I BA examination,” the sources said.

“The owner of these bogus institutions is Dr Khalid Hussain, a resident of Lahore cantt, who seldom visits Peshawar,” the accused Ghulam Mohiuddin Sajid told Dawn at the FIA lockup.

“Dr Khalid is director of Orient University, while his wife Mubashira Khalid is registrar and father of Dr Khalid is dean of the university,” Mr Sajid informed. He said that Dr Khalid has also opened institutes in Mianwali and Sialkot in Punjab province.

Sources said that since the arrest of Mr Sajid, one of the MMA ministers and some high officials of the NWFP government were influencing FIA for the release of the accused.

“This the reason, the FIA did not seal the bogus university and stopped efforts to arrest the owner of the fake institutes,” sources maintained.

The FIA got two days remand of the accused from local court on Thursday, but facing uphill task to arrest the real accused owing to the minister’s and government high-ups pressure.