KARACHI: The syndicate of the University of Karachi on Saturday cancelled the degree and enrolment of a candidate, said to be a high court judge, on the recommendation of its Unfair Means (UFM) Committee, varsity officials said.

The decision came a few hours after the detention of academic and syndicate member Dr Riaz Ahmed who was picked up by police in what appeared to be an attempt to stop him from attending the key meeting.

Dr Riaz, an associate professor at the university’s department of applied chemistry, was released in the evening only after the syndicate decided to cancel the degree.

Talking to rights activists and some members of the media after being released, Dr Riaz in a video statement claimed that the degree issue involved Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri of the Islamabad High Court.

Syndicate member claims police detained him to stop him from attending the ‘crucial’ meeting

However, it could not be verified independently as neither KU Vice Chancellor Dr Khalid Iraqi nor any other official of the university were immediately available for comment.

As the syndicate meeting was scheduled for Saturday afternoon, Dr Riaz claimed he had already objected to an agenda item pertaining to the case involving the judge’s law degree after 40 years.

Dr Riaz claimed that he was picked up from Tipu Sultan Road at around 1pm when he was on his way to KU to attend the meeting.

Later, the syndicate meeting was held without Dr Riaz and among other decisions it gave consent to the cancellation of the degree.

According to a KU press release, “The members also approved the recommendations of the KU UFM [unfair means] Committee which has proposed cancellation of the degree and enrolment cards of the candidate(s) who were found in unethical and immoral acts.”

The press release did not name any candidate.

Over two months ago, a letter began circulating on social media, purportedly from the KU’s controller of examinations, regarding Justice Jahangiri’s law degree.

The letter was reportedly a response from KU to an application seeking in-formation under the Sindh Transparency Right to Information Act, 2016. It stated that candidate Tariq Mehmood obtained his LLB degree in 1991 under enrolment number 5968.

However, Imtiaz Ahmed enrolled in 1987 under the same enrolment number, while the transcript for LLB Part I was issued under the name of Tariq Jahangiri.

Moreover, Tariq Mehmood enrolled for LLB Part I under enrolment number 7124. The letter did not declare the degree bogus but termed it invalid, explaining that the university issues one enrolment number for the entire degree programme, making it impossible for a student to have two enrolment numbers for one programme.

Justice Jahangiri is among the six judges who previously complained to the Supreme Judicial Council about chief justice and accused the Inter-Services Intelligence of interfering in judicial affairs. The complaint included allegations of spy cameras being detected at the entrance and in the bedroom of a judge, a matter that was reportedly conveyed to the chief justice but to no avail.

Earlier, Dr Riaz while talking to his colleagues claimed that he was taken away from Tipu Sultan Road when he left his residence to go to the KU at 1pm. He was initially taken to the Jamshed Quarters police station from where he was brought to the Bahadurabad police station where his wife, Sophia, arrived at 6pm and met him.

He claimed police told her that they were releasing him, but again took him to the Brigade police station.

The KU teacher was released after eight hours of ‘illegal’ detention.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2024