While the country’s investigation agencies claimed to take action time and again, the fake degree business has mushroomed across Pakistan, writes Dr Sakariya Kareem
The former Pakistani Army Chief’s brother recently had to resign from the coveted post of deputy station manager of Pakistani International Airlines (PIA) after his education degree was found fake. The business of issuing counterfeit certificates and degrees is deep-rooted in Pakistan. It has links with global scammers. Many bureaucrats, advocates and politicians were found to possess fraudulent educational degrees.
Earlier this year, a group of fraudsters were busted in Pakistan. The scammers admitted that over 250 people were provided with fake marksheets and degrees. They charged between PKR 1 to 2 million for each bogus document. The fake degrees are being sold across Pakistan amid a lack of stringent rules and poor enforcement. Many high-profile people in Pakistan are suspected to have bought fake degrees.
Iqbal Javed Bajwa was deputy station manager of PIA in London before he was found to have submitted a fake degree. He is the brother of former Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa. In 2020, two PIA officials were arrested on similar charges as they failed to verify their educational qualifications. About 659 PIA employees were found to have been selected using fake degrees.
Supreme Court of Pakistan had a few years ago called the degree scams a global embarrassment for the country. However, even the court of law in Pakistan is not immune to fake degree scams. In the latest case, four advocates from Punjab were found to have received degrees from a fictitious university. Each degree cost PKR 1 million. “Hundreds of individuals with fake degrees are members of bar associations in Punjab, said the complainant Raja Sohail Shafique.
While the country’s investigation agencies claimed to take action time and again, the fake degree business has mushroomed across Pakistan. It is not just online institutes but proper academic schools are being built, that sell fake certificates and degrees. Modern Institute of Informatics, Johar Institute of Information Technology Islamabad and the International College of Education are some such fraudulent institutes that operated from the capital city of Islamabad.
Scammers from Pakistan have been fishing people from across the world. Center of Excellence in Technology and Artificial Engineering in Pakistan (CETQAP) was one such institute that claimed to have built the first quantum computer. It offered diplomas. However, it was exposed later after a researcher named M. Shaheer Niaji investigated the false information furnished by the course teacher about him on its website.
Interestingly, the provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was linked with the fraud centre. “To make things worse, the fact that he got the KP government to sponsor his fraudulent activities under the KP nojawan quantum diploma is a very alarming situation and possibly the greatest education scam in development!!” said Niazi.
A writ petition has now been filed against a high court judge with allegations of his law degree being fake. The petitioner advocate has sought judicial intervention to address the forgery and its consequences. About a decade ago, a big degree scam rocked the country after a New York Times report revealed how a company named Axact sold fake diplomas and degrees online through hundreds of fictitious universities. The scandal had received protection from higher-ups. Even a high court judge lost his job for trying to protect the CEO of the company.
A few years ago, Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission (HEC) expressed concerns over fake degree scams mushrooming across the country under political patronage. “Degrees used to be issued like mobile SIMs, but the HEC has tried to control the menace and I can share the names of those influential people who are behind the institutions issuing such degrees and certificates,” said the then HEC Chairperson Dr Mukhtar Ahmed. “Such institutions are bringing a bad name to the country.”
ALSO READ: Pakistan’s dysfunctional education system demands strong measures