PESHAWAR: A local accountability court on Wednesday sent to prison on judicial remand the four educationists, including A bdul Wali Khan University Mardan ViceChancellor Professor Ihsan Ali, arrested for misusing authority by giving affiliation to an illegal medical institution in Abbottabad.

The suspects, including Professor Ihsan Ali, who is also the former VC of Hazara University, former Hazara University VC Dr Syed Sakhawat Shah, Northern Institute of Medical Sciences Abbottabad chairman Dr Mohammad Aziz Khan and former chairman of Higher Education Regulatory Authority Professor Hamayun Zia, were produced before judge MohammadIbrahim Khan.

National Accountability Bureau Special prosecutor Nauroze Khan informed the court that the investigation against suspects had been completed and therefore, the bureau didn`t need their physical custody.

The court sent them to the Peshawar Central Prison on 14 days of judicial remand.

While accepting their application, it asked the prison administration to keep suspects in `B` class.

Academicians and students turned up in large number to meet the arrested persons. Strict security measures were adopted on this occasion. The suspects were arrested a day earlier by the NAB, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on thecharges of misusing authority and cheating public at large by luring students to get admission in an illegal and unregistered medical educational institution depriving them of more than Rs550 million.

The NAB alleged that the inquiry showed that without any medical faculty or mandate as provided in the Khyber Medical University Act 2006, former vice-chancellors Professor Ihsan Ali and Professor Sakhawat Shah granted affiliation to the NIMS Abbottabad with ulterior motives and conducted examination of the said illegal educational institution.

According to the NAB, the inquiry discovered that Dr Mohammad Aziz Khan willfully indulged in illegal business for mon-itory gains by admitting students without any lawful mandate prior to the recognition of the institute as envisaged in the Pakistan Medical and Dental College Ordinance 1962.

Hamayun Zia illegally registered the NIMS by overlooking criteria for registration and failed to pay periodic regulatory visits.

Also in the day, top management and faculty members of AWKUM expressed dismay over the surprise arrest of the University`s ViceChancellor Professor Ihsan Ali.

During an emergency meeting, the AWKUM management and faculty said they were concerned about the way the vice-chancellor was arrested by the NAB regional office.

-BureauReport