Dr. Aamir Liaqat's masters, PhD degrees are fake
09 March, 2005
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| ISLAMABAD: (File photo) MQM Parliamentarian and Minister of State for Religious Affairs, Zakat & Ushr, Dr. Aamir Liaquat Hussain, who allegedly purcha |
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KARACHI, March 10 (Online): MQM parliamentarian and minister of state for religious affairs Dr. Aami Liaqat has allegedly purchased fake degrees of Masters in Islamic Studies, Masters in Business Administration and PhD from 'The Trinity College and University, Spain which is an unrecognized university, besides the university is not included in the list of recognized international universities available with Karachi University, reports Karachi based Urdu Daily.
In a stunning investigation by the Urdu Daily it has been documented and proved that Dr Aamir purchased fake University degrees to contest the 2002 general election, forced the Karachi University officials to authenticate these degrees in a single day and prevented any investigations by the newspaper to dig deep into the unavailable records at the University.
The newspaper, however, persisted with the three-month long probe and was able to obtain the copies of the "University" degrees Dr Aamir used to make himself eligible to contest the election for a National Assembly seat on the MQM ticket from Karachi. He won because of the party ticket and when MQM joined the Musharraf coalition, he was made Minister of state for Religious Affairs in the cabinet.
Dr Aamir did not have a graduate degree in 2002 and according to the investigation he surfed web site in Spain, The Trinity College & University, which boasts about providing Bachelors, Masters or even Doctorate degrees, without attending any class or college. "Everything by Email" the web site of the College says right on top with the big slogan: "Get your degree today."
Dr Aamir purchased his "Bachelor of Arts in Islamic Studies" degree (Serial No: P-2002227 Dated March 17, 1995), got his "Master of Arts in Islamic Studies" degree (No: P-2002341 Dated March 15, 2002) and his "Doctor of Philosophy in Islamic Studies" degree (No: P-2002528 Dated April 5, 2002).
The newspaper reports claims that the minister of state for religious affairs Dr. Aamir Liaqat secured his PhD degree in just three weeks after his Master's degree, if the documents are to be believed.
Karachi based Daily Ummat contacted the Karachi University authorities to find out how these web site Email degrees were authenticated in a single day, in writing, by the then registrar of Karachi University, Prof. NM Aqil Burney. The registrar received the application from Dr Aamir on August 24, 2002, days before filing of his nomination papers for the NA election and authenticated his degrees through letter No PA/2002 Dated August 24, 2002.
Prof. Aqil, however, did leave some elbow room by stating in his letter that the authentication was "provisional" and the final decision would be conveyed to the applicant in due course of time. That decision was neither needed nor taken nor conveyed to anyone as Dr Aamir had used the provisional certificate to get himself elected to the Parliament and the matter was pushed under the rug.
When the newspaper contacted Prof Aqil later to ask how he could issue the authentication without referring the documents to the Equivalence Committee, he admitted that Dr Aamir had come to him with degrees from some Trinity College Spain and he authenticated them on the pot.
Prof Aqil kept no record of these degrees and when the newspaper contacted the current registrar to verify whether any such record was kept, no one could trace the file, as none existed.
When the newspaper contacted the Higher Education Commission in Islamabad, the official authority on the matter, to verify whether the Trinity College & University of Spain, which issued the degrees to Dr Aamir, was a recognized institution by Pakistan, Director General Mohammed Javed Khan informed the newspaper vide a letter Dated February 23, 2005 that the Trinity College was not recognized. The letter confirmed the forgery of Dr Aamir and abetment in the forgery by Prof Aqil to facilitate his candidacy in the election.
Daily Ummat also obtained copies of the degrees Dr Aamir presented to the Election Commission and during the investigation found that the Trinity College and University, Spain had placed exactly similar samples on its web site, offered the same day for a price.
The investigation leaves Dr Aamir Liaquat Hussain, MQM Chief Altaf Hussain and General Pervez Musharraf in an embarrassing political dilemma. Musharraf has been promoting Dr Aamir as the heir apparent of Altaf Hussain himself and the way his curve was rising was creating serious apprehensions within the MQM circles as well.
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