MULTAN: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday arrested Bahauddin Zakariya University’s former vice chancellor Dr Khwaja Alqama over alleged illegalities and violation of rules in the establishment of varsity’s Lahore sub-campus.

NAB officials presented the handcuffed former VC before an accountability court and sought his two-week physical remand. The Judge, Mr Akhtar Bahadur Khan, however, granted one-week remand of the suspect and ordered NAB to again present him on Nov 5.

The NAB team also reportedly raided the house of BZU registrar Malik Munir Hussain who could not be found there.

Meanwhile, the new BZU Vice Chancellor Dr Tahir Amin has given registrar’s charge to Quality Enhancement Director Dr Muhammad Farooq till further orders after the leave application of Mr Hussain was received by the VC office.

Sources said NAB had also questioned Punjab government spokesman Syed Zaeem Qadri in connection with the scam. They said NAB also collected a CCTV footage from a bank where Mr Qadri was present.

According to Dr Alqama’s counsel Advocate Zulfiqar Sidhu, a NAB team accompanied by local police entered the varsity premises forcefully and arrested the former VC.

He alleged that during the arrest, Dr Alqama was humiliated and his family members were treated badly by the officials.

He said NAB had issued a letter to the former VC, asking him to appear before its officials for investigation on Nov 3.

“The NAB and police officials arrested Dr Alqama illegally as they did not have any warrant for the purpose,” he said.

He said the NAB officials told the court that Dr Alqama had been arrested in connection with “illegal” establishment of university’s sub-campus in Lahore as neither the varsity Syndicate nor the Higher Education Commission (HEC) approved it.

He claimed the case did not fall under NAB jurisdiction as the former VC faced charges of procedural irregularities and no financial misconduct was involved because the amount collected from the students was with the BZU’s Lahore sub-campus administration.

Meanwhile, the NAB, through an official handout, confirmed the arrests of Dr Alqama and Lahore sub-campus director Hamza Munir for “misusing authority” and “cheating the public at large”.

NAB said Dr Alqama, Mr Hussain and the owners of West Continental Group (WCG) Munir Bhatti and his son opened the sub-campus without getting approval from the competent authorities.

It stated that the WCG owners collected Rs925 million from the students through cheating and fraud by issuing newspaper advertisements claiming the sub-campus’s degree was recognised by the HEC.

The sub-campus project was initiated in 2013 by WCG, owned by Shahzad Munawar, through its project director Aqeel Tufaili on Jan 19. Mr Zaeem Qadri was serving as a special assistant to Punjab chief minister on higher education when the Lahore sub-campus episode began.

The group later joined hands with another investor and got applicants’ title changed to West Continental Group (WCG). It signed a second MoU with BZU on March 12, through its two executive directors, Aqeel Tufaili and Muhammad Gulistan. Three days later, on March 15, a third MoU was signed.

Mr Tufaili and Mr Gulistan “sold” their shares in the project to Tahir Iqbal Chaudhry (chairman) and Mazhar Iqbal Azeem (executive director). A new agreement deed was signed between BZU, represented VC Prof Dr Syed Khawaja Alqama and Registrar Malik Munir and the WCG’s Tahir Iqbal and Mazhar Iqbal on May 16.

Later, Tahir and Mazhar also withdrew after receiving the “cost” from another investor party -- Munir Ahmad Bhatti, his son Hamza Munir Bhatti, Abdul Aleem Bhatti and Rabia Bhatti.

In December 2013, the then provincial education minister Rana Mashhood had informed the Punjab Assembly members in a question-hour session that the provincial government was going to refer the BZU’s Lahore sub-campus scam to the NAB.

In January 2015, a meeting of the NAB’s executive board had authorised an inquiry against BZU Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Khawaja Alqama, Registrar Malik Munir Hussain and others.

A NAB press release issued at that time had stated the accused persons illegally opened the BZU’s Lahore sub-campus without getting approval from the varsity Syndicate and NOC from the HEC.

Sources said a NAB team in Lahore arrested Hamza Munir and Munir Bhatti. However, later Mr Bhatti was released as he was on bail.

They said Mr Batthi had moved the Lahore High Court against his arrest and the court issued show-cause notices to the NAB officials.

Syed Zaeem Qadri was not available for comment.

NAB is also probing into launch of the Distance Learning Programme (DLP) by the varsity administration without approval of competent bodies.

The bureau has also written to the district administration for provision of record of properties owned by the DLP director Dr Ishaq Fani.

New Vice Chancellor Dr Tahir Amin has constituted a three-member committee to probe into the allegations with regard to DLP launch.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2015

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