The Public Accounts Committee of the Sindh Assembly was told on Tuesday that 27 employees of Dow University of Health Sciences in Karachi had been dismissed after their educational documents were found to be fake. The report: Dawn, 21 October. An administrative dismissal and a committee order, not a criminal conviction.

The sitting: Nisar Ahmed Khuhro in the chair. Members: Qasim Siraj Soomro and Makhdoom Fakhar Zaman, after Dawn. Vice-chancellor: Nazli Hussain. The committee reviewed audit paras for 2024 and 2025. The audit: the administration had not verified degrees at recruitment and had not answered queries.

The finance director, after the same report: of 5,350 employees, about 1,945 degrees had been verified; 27 were fake; 3,400 were still with the Higher Education Commission. Pakistan Observer: a Rs7.36 million contract to HRSG, for verification through the HEC. Two names: HRSG is in Observer, not in Dawn.

Khuhro directed recovery of all salaries paid to the 27. He also sought reports from all public universities on verification of staff credentials. A committee direction, not a court sentence.

The 27 are not named in the report. The remaining 3,400 files are not judged here; verification is still under way. The vice-chancellor: more than 70 percent of academic doctors’ degrees verified; the remaining 25 percent still in process. The percentages do not add to a hundred; we do not invent the rest. Dump Dawn. The rewrite rests on Dawn and Pakistan Observer.

Image: Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, 11 January 2009, Isnabeel, public domain, Wikimedia Commons. The campus, not the PAC sitting.

Sources consulted: 27 employees of Dow University dismissed over fake degrees — Pakistan Observer.