MULTAN, May 20: Two expatriates living in the UK have complained that the authorities at the Multan Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education are not cooperating with them in the issuance of certificates required by the British authorities to extend their stay.

Dr Aun Muhammad and Dr Aslam told Dawn that under the new British immigration rules the “highly-skilled labour” like doctors, engineers and teachers were bound to tender fresh certificates from the present heads of their respective degree-issuing institutions if they wanted to prolong their stay.

They said the institutions just required to validate the degrees under their letterhead. But, the Multan BISE authorities had refused to do so saying “there is no provision to issue such certificates.”

“We will do this only if the British immigration authorities will ask us directly,” they quoted BISE chairman Rehmatullah Soori as saying while denying them the certificate.

Dr Aun said he secured the overall third position in the FSc examination held in 1999 and he had won the Talent Scholarship, but he was not being given a simple certificate to continue his job in the UK.

The two expatriates urged the government to intervene and remove the bureaucratic bottlenecks before it was too late for them. — Correspondent