Imran’s dream varsity has only 37 students

ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan’s dream institution- Al Qadir University — constructed and launched with the land donated by a real estate giant during Khan’s rule in 2019 — is so far a college with 37 students and is receiving millions of rupees in donations.

Run by a trust, its original trustees were Imran Khan (the then prime minister), Bushra Khan (Imran’s spouse), Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari (Zuldi Bukhari) and Zaheer ud din Babar Awan. Later, Zulfi Bukhari and Babar Awan were removed from the trust and replaced by Dr Arif Nazir Butt and Mrs Farhat Shehzadi. It is pertinent to mention here that Mrs Farhat Shahzadi, also known as Farah Khan/ Farah Bibi is a close friend of Mrs Bushra Khan.

Al Qadir management claims to be a university, but has not yet been recognised by the Punjab Higher Education Department. It has so far been allowed to teach only one subject Bs-MS (Management Sciences) and can enroll maximum of 50 students with its affiliation with Government College University Punjab.

Where all sort of expenses were being well taken care of by the donor as per their agreement, Al-Qadir institute also charged tuition fee from these students.

From January 2021 to December 2021, trust received donations of 180 million rupees. From July 2020 to June 2021, the total income of the trust was 101 million rupees. Whereas, the total expenditure including the salaries of the staff and workers was around rupees 8.58 million only.

The real estate tycoon donated 458 Kanals of land to the university which, according to the stamp paper, was valued at 244 million rupees. The land was transferred first to Zulfi Bukhari who later transferred it to the Trust after its creation in January 2021. The land is located in Mouza Bakrala, Tehsil Sohawa, District Jhelum.

Interestingly, the acknowledgement agreement of the donated land was signed between Mrs Bushra Khan (on behalf of Al-Qadir University) and the donor while Imran Khan (chairman of Al Qadir University) was holding the Prime Minister’s Office.

All documents are available with this correspondent.

The donor confirms that it purchased land for the purpose of Al-Qadir university project Trust. The donor declares that it caused the land to be transferred from the name of sole proprietorship of Al-Qadir Trust university of Mr Zulfi Bukhari to the Trust on January 22, 2021.

In the agreement, the donor agreed to construct building facilities for Al-Qadir trust project. The donor confirmed in the agreement that it had already constructed a portion of the building.

The donor further confirms in the agreement that it will bear the all expenses for establishing and running of the proposed Al-Qadir university. The donor also confirms that it will contribute funds to the trust for setting up and running Al-Qadir Project. The Trust accepted and acknowledged the contribution of the donor in the form of land, building, facilities and infrastructure constructed or to be constructed.

On March 12, 2021, Imran Khan launched plantation drive in Al Qadir University, Sohawa, Jhelum. On November 29, 2021, Imran Khan inaugurated university’s academic blocks.

Further, Al-Qadir University Trust Project has mentioned itself as a university in its webpage — alqadir.edu.pk, while in reality, it is a college as their request for grant of charter for degree awarding status has been pending with Punjab Higher Education Commission (PHEC) since March 17, 2022.

In this application, it was stated that the trust established a college which was affiliated with Government College University, Lahore, and the trust wanted to establish a degree awarding status with the name of Al-Qadir Institute.

The PHEC responded to this letter by saying that some documents were missing with the application for example HEC equivalence certificates for the faculty members of Al Qadir Institute. The PHEC also asked the applicants to submit an audit report with financial and non-financial details as the one already submitted was considered insufficient by the commission.

Dr Arif Nazir Butt, a trustees,-told The News that in order to have a charter as a degree awarding status, the PHEC rules first requires to set up an affiliate college with a public university. "We became an affiliate college of the Government College University with Management Science department in 2021. As an affiliate college of Government College University (GCU), we were allowed to offer BS Management Science in Fall 2021 with 50 seats. Students were selected based on merit by an admissions committee. They were given high quality education," said Dr Arif Butt.

“The trust has fulfilled requirements to become a degree awarding institution within a short time and have requested the Punjab government to allow charter for degree awarding status based on both Management Science and Islamic Studies departments. The application is under process at HEC Punjab government. More departments will be added every year as the organisation grows”, said Dr Arif Nazir Butt.

Arif Nazir Butt also revealed to this scribe that he became a member of the management committee of Al Qadir Trust at end 2020 and a trustee in December 2021 along with Mrs Farhat Shahzadi.

When questioned why the trust was receiving additional donations when all the expenses were covered by the real estate company, and why was it charging tuition fee from the students, Dr Arif replied, “Al Qadir Trust has capital and operational expenses since it is running an affiliate college. The trust also needs to build a reserve fund to meet financial obligations. To meet these needs, the trust is trying to build sources of funds from donations and internal resources such as tuition fees”. However, he said that last year all admitted students in the trust received tuition waiver in financial assistance.

Dr Arif also claimed that a third-party audit was also done. However, he did not share the details of the audit with this scribe as he said that it was not in his jurisdiction to discuss the matter as the information may be confidential.

The same question was asked to the other Trustees of Al-Qadir University Trust Project but none replied.

Zulfi Bukhari when contacted told The News that it was the first time ever that a prime minister utilised donations to real use by building educational institutions and spreading the teachings of our religion ‘Islam’.

He was also repeatedly questioned about the land (around 500 Kanals) which was transferred to his name by real estate company which was later acknowledged in an agreement between Bushra Khan and the company, but he did not respond.

The News also made numerous attempts to contact Zaheer ud Din Babar (Babar Awan ) through calls and messages, but he did not respond. The News left questions on his WhatsApp which he received, but did not respond.

On December 26, 2019, a trust deed was registered in the Office of Sub Registrar, Islamabad by Zaheer ud Din Babar Awan. The trust was named as ‘Al Qadir University Project’ and Awan’s house in F-8 Islamabad was declared as its office.

The original trustees at that time were Imran Khan, Bushra Khan, Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari (former SAPM for Overseas Pakistanis) and Babar Awan (legal advisor to the then PM Imran Khan).

On April 22, 2020, Imran Khan as chairperson of Al Qadir Trust Islamabad wrote a letter to the joint sub registrar, Islamabad, informing him that Zaheer ud Din Babar Awan and Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari have been dropped or deleted from the trust. With the amended trust deed, the office of the trust was relocated to the Banigala House of Imran Khan. The amended Trust Deed along with the letter was signed and sent to the joint sub registrar Islamabad while Imran Khan was holding the office of the Prime Minister. All the documents are available with this scribe.

As part of the donation, the real estate company purchased land measuring 458 Kanals situated in Mouza Bakrala, Tehsil Sohawa, District Jhelum in the name of Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari as custodian of Al Qadir Trust project and on 22nd of January, 2021, after creation of the trust, Mr Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari transferred this land in the name of the trust. For the purpose of stamp duty, the value of the land was fixed at Rs 243,972,300. All documents are present with this correspondent.

On March 24, 2021, an acknowledgement of donation agreement was signed between the real estate company and Bushra Khan (on behalf of the trust).

From January 2021 to December 2021, trust received donations of Rs180 million. From July 2020 to June 2021, the total income of the trust was Rs101 million. According to the balance sheet, the total expenditure including the salaries of the staff and workers was around Rs8.58 million.

On February 17, 2022, Charity Commission Government of Punjab registered Al-Qadir Project trust, GT Road Sohawa, Bakrala, District Jhelum, as charity.

The name of the trustees of Al-Qadir trust project as per the Charity Portal include Imran Khan, Mrs. Bushra Khawar w/o Imran Ahmad Khan Niazi, Dr Arif Nazir Butt and Mrs Farhat Shahzadi.

It is pertinent to mention here that Farhat Shahzadi, also known as Farah Bibi is an old friend of Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Khan.

On March 2, 2022, a trust deed titling ‘Endowment Fund for Al-Qadir Institute” was registered in the office of the sub registrar Sohawa. The name of the trustees in this deed are “Bushra Khan, Farhat Shahzadi and Dr Arif Nazeer Butt while the author of this deed is Imran Khan.