FAISALABAD: In January last, the Government College University of Faisalabad (GCUF) found that its affiliated institute in Dera Ghazi Khan, owned by PML-N MNA Hafiz Abdul Kareem, had tried to get registered several students with the university on fake transcripts.

The university took action on the criminal act and forfeited Rs12 million security deposited by the Indus International Institute and on February 9, also cancelled the affiliation status, which was awarded to the institute on June 1, 2015.

A three-member committee, headed by Prof Humayun Abbas, was formed to probeinto the matter but it could not conclude the task when after three-and-a-half months the institute showed their lack of trust on the committee and approached the governor, also the chancellor of the GCUF.

On the intervention of the chancellor, the GCUF formed a committee under Dr Nasir Amin to probe the issue.

Sources said more than 1,500 students of the Indus institute of different disciplines, registered on valid documents, had failed to get their result cards from the GCUF.

The issue of forged transcripts surfaced when the Indus administration approached the university to admit their students on transcripts issued by the National College of Business Administration and Economics(NCBAE), Lahore.

When checked, the NCBAE controller of examinations said the results/award sheets of the student were not supplied by them.

This prompted the GCUF officials to convene the meeting of the affiliation committee on Jan 20 last where participants suggested that the Indus administration be issued anoticeforpersonalhearing.

The Indus administration representatives appeared before the committee, however, they did not submit reply.

The university letter reads that representatives of the institute have badly failed to defend their act of forgery which falls under sections 463 to 471 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Sherafghan, a student of mass communi-cation at the Indus Institute, said more than 1,500 students had been suffering due to the GCUF action, while the future of 906 students was even bleaker as the GCUF was not ready to own them.

The Indus institute has history of misconduct: it has been enrolling students for three years without having affiliation with any university. He said first they had been told that institute had been affiliated with the Federal Urdu University, then with the NCBAE and finally with the GCUF.

Sherafghan demanded that the National Accountability Bureau, Federal Investigation Agency and other law enforcement agencies should have taken action against the institute for the volume of the fraud was in hundreds of millions. He said as the owner the ruling MNA, so he had managed to delay action by the law enforcement agencies.

Ameer Kareem, a student of MPhil, said he had got admission to the institute in 2013 and paid a Rs100,000 fee. However, after the two semesters he had come to know that the institute had no affiliation with any degree awarding institute.

He said first students had been told that the institute had affiliation with an institute of Lahore and some people from Lahore had also visited the Indus institute to attend a seminar.

Later on, he said we had been informed that our affiliation with the Lahore institute had been cancelled and now the GCUF would award degrees.

A spokesperson for the GCUF said the issue would be decided on merit as the chancellor had directed the university to provide opportunity of personal hearing through their counsel. He said the VC had the prerogative to change any member of the inquiry committee.

He did not comment when asked why the GCUF was not ready to own 906 students.

Executive Director of the Indus Institute Qazi Subhan did not respond.