Belated Nadra scrutiny exposes HEC’s degree verification process

ISLAMABAD: Zulfiqar Ahmed is a director general rank officer in the National Database Registration Authority. He can be “credited” with unmasking the degree verification system of the Higher Education Commission. But this was not without the cost. He himself was exposed in the process and by his own organization.

The Nadra is scrutinizing the educational credentials of its employees in order to purge the organization of those having fake credentials. Dozens of employees have been shown the door and their degrees are the key reasons. They had either bogus credentials or obtained the degrees from the non-recognized institutions. Although Zulfiqar is still in the job, his future is uncertain due to his questionable credentials.

Going by his claim, he is an American-qualified officer who did a BBA from Westwood College and an MBA from George Mason University. In 2018, the Nadra directed him, among others, to get his degree verified. He provided ‘verification of degrees in the sealed envelope’ to HEC. This pretended as if the verification certificates had been issued by the concerned universities and handed to him in the sealed envelope for the submission to HEC.

The HEC could only bother to check that the both institutions were recognized degree awarding institutions as per the record of the UNESCO and the USA’s Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). Regarding the verification of degrees, the HEC relied on the sealed envelopes handed to it by the applicant, Zulfiqar. It was not further checked from the university and provisional verification letters were issued. A subsequent letter of HEC issued in 2021 declared the verification certificates ‘authentic and genuine.’

However, the events unfolding later on suggested as if the verification certificates were made up by the applicant. And it was flagged by none other than his employer, Nadra . A letter in June this year alerted HEC that the documents were suspicious. His MBA degree became doubtful on the grounds that the person who signed it was not the president of George Mason University in 1990. Zulfiqar’s degree bore the signature of Edging R. Marsey. In reality, George W. Johnson was the university’s president at that time. This suggests the “provided degree may be tempered with, fabricated or fake,” reads a Nadra letter to HEC.

His BBA degree from Westwood College became doubtful on the grounds it didn’t exist in 1987 when Zulfiqar claimed to have earned it. The college was initially set up in 1953 as Denver Institute of Technology offering diploma and degree programs. It was named the Westwood College in 1997. “The degree awarded to Mr. Zulfiqar in 1987 by Westwood College seems illogical and therefore is suspected to be fake,” Nadra wrote to HEC. On these grounds, it called into question the HEC verification process.

It was only after this wake-up call that HEC itself approached directly to verify and found the degrees unrecognized. The Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges informed the HEC that they have “no record of accrediting Westwood College located in Annandale, Virginia in 1987 or at any other time.” The one renamed as Westwood in 1997 is closed. Likewise, George Mason University said it didn’t have a student record for Zulfiqar Ahmed. Earlier, the HEC was caught due to its negligent conduct in the case of now-former chief minister of Gilgit Baltistan, Khalid Khurshid Khan, who got a fake degree of the University of London verified from the HEC in 2011.

The HEC confirmed to The News the discrepancy occurred in Zulfiqar and former CM GB case. A spokesperson said the HEC used to accept verification certificates via email and sealed envelopes from university or via official university Fax. The system has been changed now, its spokesperson said. Now, HEC only accepts verification via the respective university’s official email address. Only then a final equivalence letter is issued, said the spokesperson.

Zulfiqar was also contacted for a version on the above-narrated detail. Following was his reply: “The matter is now sub judice. And I prefer not to make further comments on it at this time. I would like to clarify that my degrees were verified by the Higher Education Commission through their established process in 2018 and most recently in July 2024.”

As a matter of fact, he has challenged in the court that the verification issued to him in 2018 has been cancelled in 2024 by HEC as it affected his service matter because he was removed from the field posting afterward.