{
  "id": 15846663,
  "title": "27 Dow University employees sacked over fake degrees, PAC told",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/21/27-dow-university-employees-sacked-over-fake-degrees-pac-told",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-21T02:05:31.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dawn - Pakistan",
    "slug": "dawn-pakistan",
    "url": "https://www.dawn.com/news/2038661/27-dow-university-employees-sacked-over-fake-degrees-pac-told"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "KARACHI: The Public Accounts Committee of the Sindh Assembly's recent meeting revealed that 27 employees at Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) have been terminated due to their employment based on fraudulent degrees. The committee, chaired by Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, also learned that the verification process of 3,400 out of 5,350 employees' credentials is still ongoing with the Higher Education Commission (HEC). PAC Chairman directed the university administration to reclaim the full salaries of the 27 employees with falsified degrees. The meeting included PAC members Qasim Siraj Soomro and Makhdoom Fakhar Zaman, DUHS Vice-Chancellor Nazli Hussain, and other officials. They reviewed the university's audit reports for 2024 and 2025, noting the administration's failure to verify the degrees of the recruited employees during the audit process, and not responding to queries on this matter. The finance director of the university informed the committee that the verification process was outsourced to a company for the sum of Rs7.36 million. Out of the total 5,350 employees, approximately 1,945 degrees had been verified, among which 27 were found to be counterfeit, while 3,400 degrees were still under verification. The Vice-Chancellor stated that more than 70 percent of academic doctors' degrees were verified, while the remaining 25 percent were still in the process of verification. The PAC chairman directed the recovery of the entire salary amount from the 27 employees with fraudulent degrees and requested a report from all public universities on the verification of academic staff and employees' credentials. The committee also questioned the annual budget and revenue generation of DUHS. The finance director mentioned the university's annual budget of Rs26 billion, which generates Rs25 billion annually from academic services, radiology, laboratory, and other sources, including a significant revenue of Rs4.5 billion from student fees. The Vice-Chancellor revealed that DUHS has over 300 open-merit seats. Self-finance students are charged Rs500,000 per annum, open merit students Rs60,000 per annum, and international students are charged between $10,000 and $18,000 per annum as per the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council's fixed rates. Meanwhile, the meeting also addressed the poor condition of Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi, to which the PAC chairman expressed dissatisfaction, pointing out that despite receiving billions of rupees annually for free treatment, the hospital remained in a poor state.",
  "summary": "KARACHI: The Public Accounts Committee of the Sindh Assembly was informed on Tuesday that 27 Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) employees had been dismissed from service after their educational documents were found to be fake. The PAC meeting chaired by Nisar Ahmed Khuhro was also informed that the verification of degrees of 3,400 employees out of a total of 5,350 was still pending with the…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}