Fake Degrees
(Mohammad Farooq, Karachi)
Fake Degrees
“As long as Awam continue to elect Muzzaffar Shajra he will go to assembly” says
the highest authority, reported a news channel the other day. Wow, the highest
authority in Pakistan is bold enough to admit publicly that we Pakistanis do not
care for integrity and honesty.
Our politicians usually set aside honesty, integrity etc to get elected, but
never accepted publicly that we are dishonest, but this guy is bold enough to
send a message loud and clear to the world that “yes we are dishonest bunch of
people and have the right to rule this country of semi literate and starving
people and get elected by any means and hoodwink the Election Commission of
Pakistan.
Our other professionals do lag behind in this field of dishonesty. A few years
ago one of the Presidents of a private bank was found working with fake
doctorate degree.
Pakistan is not a lone nation to be branded dishonest. There are others too in a
different guise. One example is quoted below for our readers to decide what is
being offered:-
Quote
-----Original Message-----
From: Brendan Siegel
Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 3:51 AM
To: undisclosed recipient
Subject: Buying a diploma will save time to reach the heights in your
career.
In today's world, sad to say, it is simply no longer good enough to just excel
at what you do. Very often, in addition to professional
abilities a university diploma will be a firm prerequisite for any position
you seek. You can be very qualified, with years of practical
experience and nonetheless be held back from even obtaining an interview for an
appropriate position in your field due to the lack of a
university diploma. Fortunately, you can get credit for your knowledge
and experience by taking advantage of a Recognition of Prior Learning [RPL]
program offered by many universities today. RPL is a process that assesses the
individual's formal and non-formal level of knowledge, in order to determine the
extent to which that individual has achieved the required learning and
competency to complete a qualification. Call us right now and get the credit &
amp; recognition you deserve.
While working for an immigration consultant firm in the year 2006 it was found
that several professionals apply for immigration to UK Government with fake
degrees of M. Sc of Karachi University (KU). The script itself speaks volume
about its origin, but the consultant never cared about its appearance and
forwarded the same to the immigration authorities along with fake appointment
letters of the prospective immigrant to meet the requirement of minimum level of
salary they are supposed to be drawing in Pakistan, of course with required
handsome amount of fees to accompany the immigration application.
UK immigration authorities sent the degrees to KU for verification. Replies
received from KU are obvious. They in turn return the letter received from KU
confirming that these degrees do not match with their record and are false.
Neither UK immigration authorities take any action against the consultant,
because they are getting huge some in the form of non refundable fees nor KU
cares to investigate how its fake degrees are circulating in the market.
This scribe while working in the HR Department of a nationalized bank years ago,
under the instructions of Ministry of Finance sent several degrees of new
entrants to Karachi University for verification and few of them were reported
fake. Those persons lost their jobs instantly. This was in distant past. I am
not aware if this practice is continuing.
Dishonesty was rampant. Fake medical bills were submitted by a large number of
bank employees for reimbursement and usually get away with it in connivance with
members of elected unions/associations.
False TA/DA bills were submitted without actually performing the
visit/inspection claimed therein, duly verified by the competent authority.
Furniture & fixtures were reportedly purchased by submitting dubious receipts
for the accommodation provided by the bank usually in overseas stations.
Auditors during their visit to these branches abroad and were supposed to check
such leakages never reported back to Head Office with obvious reasons. When they
returned home after conducting audit were found carrying huge baggage were open
secrets.
Leave rules were being flouted daringly by misinterpreting these rules and huge
amount of leave salary were encashed in this way.
No action was seen ever taken by the management of this bank for the reason best
known to them.