An accountability court on Monday charged Munawar Hussain Gilani, Pir Syed Sibtul Hassan Shah Gilani alias Double Shah, Syeda Farhat Hassan, Chan Pir and Shoukat Ali of being involved in a financial fraud worth millions of rupees.
The accused allegedly deprived the general public of their hard earned money worth Rs 441.347 million by cheating them and shattered the socio-economic fabric of the area. The case was popularly known as the ‘Double Shah’ case. According to details, the accused aided each other in luring people to deposit money with them and promised them that they would return them double the amount that they invested. The accused managed to collect a hefty amount and did not return the investors their money. During the hearing, the accused denied the allegations leveled against them by the prosecution and the court summoned the prosecutions’ witnesses for September 27.
Separately, following orders of Punjab Ombudsman Khalid Mahmood, the University of Health Sciences (UHS) allowed a MPhil Community Medicine student to reappear in his thesis viva voce. According to the results announced on July 26, the candidate cleared the examination.
Complainant Dr Naeem had filed a petition submitting that he had passed part I and II of MPhil examinations and appeared in the third and last component, which was the viva voce of the thesis submitted by him, conducted by three external examiners on March 4. The maximum marks for the viva voce were 200 and the passing marks were 120. The three examiners gave him 60 marks and declared him unsuccessful. He said that at the time of the viva, the three examiners had advised him to make changes in the thesis and he had incorporated the suggested changes in his thesis. The revised version of his thesis was marked by Dr Amanullah Khan, who was one of the three examiners, on March 8 and observed that his advice had been complied with. The other two examiners also agreed that the suggested changes had been incorporated by the complainant in his thesis.
He was later surprised to find out that he had been declared unsuccessful by the university. After the result was declared, Dr Amanullah Khan sent a letter to the university on March 18 that the three examiners had unanimously agreed to give the complainant 140 marks but before the letter was received by the university, Dr Naeem had already been declared unsuccessful by the university. He requested the university to declare his failure notification dated March 17 as illegal and to revise his result.
The matter was taken up with the UHS and during investigation, Dr Amanullah Khan said that he was convener of Dr Naeem’s dissertation and viva. The examiners, unanimously, had agreed to pass him by giving 60 marks in the verbal part. Since major alterations in thesis were required, he was declared as fail until his dissertation was reassessed. The complainant, however, hurriedly modified some of the points and submitted the dissertation directly to the university without his signature. After the result was announced, he met the controller of examinations who informed him that it was not possible to review a candidate’s result without a resubmission of the dissertation and a re-examination.
The ombudsman said that the university was responsible for creating the confusion regarding Dr Naeem’s result and that the university was guilty of maladministration. The university was directed to revise the complainant’s results and retake his viva with a different panel of examiners. The ombudsman’s orders were complied with by the university and the complainant was allowed to retake his viva and was declared successful on July 26.
In another development, Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Abdus Sattar Asghar summoned the superintendent of Camp Jail and medical superintendent of the Services Hospital, Lahore for September 16 to submit the complete case record for the bail petition of an Indonesian citizen arrested for allegedly being involved in an illegal kidney transplant. The North Cantonment Police had arrested seven suspects, including a surgeon, and petitioner Abdullah, from a house near the Allama Iqbal International Airport while they were transplanting a kidney into the petitioner.
The petitioner contended through his counsel that he was falsely charged for being involved in an illegal kidney transplant. The petitioner’s counsel said that his client was receiving medical treatment at the Services Hospital and that his health was getting worse day by day. The counsel requested the court to grant his client a bail on medical grounds as the petitioner was fatally ill.
