PESHAWAR: The National Accountability Bureau Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday arrested four educationists, including noted archeologist and Vice-Chancellor of Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan Professor Ihsan Ali on the charge of misusing authority by giving affiliation to an illegal medical institution in Abbottabad.

The suspects, including Professor Ihsan Ali, who is also former VC of Hazara University, another former Hazara University VC Dr Syed Sakhawat Shah, Northern Institute of Medical Sciences Abbottabad chairman Dr Mohammad Aziz Khan and former chairman of Higher Education Regulatory Authority Professor Hamayun Zia, will be produced by the NAB before an accountability court here today (Wednesday) for physical custody.

The NAB alleges that the suspects were involved in the misuse of authority and cheating of people at large by luring students to get admission in illegal and unregistered medical educational institution depriving their parents of more than Rs550 million.

Four arrested men face charge of giving affiliation to illegal medical institution

It added that the inquiry showed that without any medical faculty or mandate as provided in the Khyber Medical University Act 2006, former vice chancellors Professor Ihsan Ali and Professor Sakhawat Shah granted affiliation to the NIMS Abbottabad with ulterior motives and conducted examination of the said illegal educational institution.

The NAB said the two suspects abetted with the illegal medical college not only to fleece parents of their hard earned money but also to play with the future of innocent students by wasting their precious time.

According to the NAB, the inquiry discovered that Dr Mohammad Aziz Khan willfully indulged in the illegal business for monitory gains by admitting students without any lawful mandate prior to the recognition of the institute as envisaged in the Pakistan Medical and Dental College Ordinance 1962 and a Supreme Court judgment given in 2007.

Hamayun Zia in connivance with others illegally registered the NIMS by overlooking criteria for registration and failed to pay periodic regulatory visits.

The NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has also been conducting inquiry into the alleged illegal recruitments at the Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan.

It began inquiry last year after receiving complaints about appointments to the university allegedly on political basis.

The inquiry was challenged by the university last year through a petition on the ground that it’s an autonomous and independent body set up under the AWKU Act 2012.

However, the court disposed of the petition on Feb 11, 2015, asking the NAB regional office to provide in writing the list of the university’s documents it needed.

The bench had asked the NAB to route correspondence with the university through registrar.

Few weeks ago, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission, a provincial anti-corruption body, had also begun inquiry into the matters already challenged by the university in the court.

The PHC disposed of the petition after the Ehtesab Commission informed it that it had stopped the inquiry and transferred the relevant material to the NAB, which was a federal body.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2015

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