LAHORE: The Punjab University has decided to write to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for recovery of millions of rupees from 12 teachers who went abroad on scholarships and absconded.

The administration will also write to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and Ministry of Interior to block the CNICs and passports of these runaway teachers.

In a press statement, the PU spokesman said 56 teachers of Punjab University had received grants worth millions of rupees to do their PhDs abroad, out of which 12 teachers did not return to the university. He said seven absconding teachers had availed the HEC scholarships and five had got PU overseas scholarships.

He said according to the law, all teachers were required to return to the PU after completing their PhDs abroad and serve the university for at least five years. But as they did not join their duty after the degree, these absconding teachers had to pay millions of rupees to the university as per the agreement.

Teachers went abroad on scholarships for PhDs and absconded

According to the spokesperson, Farah Sattar from Centre for Geographical Information Systems has absconded without paying more than Rs7m, Syed Mohsin Ali of the Centre for Geographical Information Systems has absconded without paying more than Rs14m, Kiran Ayesha of the Institute of Administrative Sciences has absconded without paying more than Rs10m, Rabia Abbas of the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics has absconded without paying more than Rs9m, Khawaja Khurram Khurshid of the Institute of Quality and Technology Management has absconded without paying more than Rs8.4m, Shumaila Ishaq of the Hailey College of Commerce has absconded without paying more than Rs16.1m, and Dr Muhammad Usman Rahim of the Centre for Coal Technology has absconded without paying more than Rs7.2m.

The spokesperson said Salman Aziz from the College of Engineering and Emerging Technology absconded without paying more than Rs9m, Dr Seemab Ara Farooqi from the Institute of Administrative Sciences escaped with more than Rs10m, Samia Mahmood from the Institute of Administrative Sciences has to pay than Rs11.6m, Muhammad Nawaz from the Center for Geographical Information Systems more than Rs7.2m, and Javeria Iqbal from the PU College of Information Technology more than Rs6m. He said that the Punjab University also terminated 12 absconding teachers from the university service.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2025