Investigations have revealed that the paper used for making fake degrees is easily available in the open market. Claiming that they have no control over the printing of ‘degree paper’, universities have shown their disassociation with the matter and have advised all companies and institutions to send copies of the professional degrees to the respective universities for verification before making any appointments.
Pakistan Today got copy of a fake degree of a person who claims himself to be a graduate of NED University of Engineering and Technology. As per the document, Navid Ahmed Siddiqui got his degree from the university on August 19, 2012 but when his degree was sent for verification, the varsity declared the BE degree to be fake.
The degree has the signature of the Vice Chancellor (VC) Engineer Abul Kalam and of the registrar of the university. Interestingly, the paper used to make the fake degree of Navid Ahmed Siddiqui is the same which is used by the university for awarding professional degrees to its graduates. It also has a stamp of the varsity which proves the ‘originality’ of the document. “The university receives a number of fake degrees every year which apparently look genuine but actually have no academic record with the university,” said NED University of Engineering and Technology Registrar Engineer Javed Aziz Khan while talking to Pakistan Today.
“We have hired a private printing press for the printing of degree paper but we can not stop them for printing the same paper for someone else,” he argued. He said that a few years ago, the government sent them degrees of some politicians which also turned out to be bogus. “It is not the duty of the university to start hunting fake degree holders but it is responsibility of the law enforcement agencies to locate the forgers and bring them to justice,” the registrar added.
Talking to Pakistan Today, the vice chancellors of Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST) and University of Karachi (KU) said that the universities have been facing this problem over the last many years. “I think the time has come for universities to take remedial measures to control the printing and selling of degree paper,” they said.
