KARACHI: Twenty-seven employees of Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) have been dismissed after their educational qualifications were found to be fake, prompting the Sindh Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to order recovery of the salaries paid to them and seek fresh reports on degree verification across public universities.
The findings have exposed a wider problem at the Karachi-based public-sector university: of its 5,350 employees, the qualifications of only 1,945 had been verified at the time of the latest PAC meeting, while approximately 3,400 remained under verification, officials told the committee.
The issue is not simply how many employees presented fake credentials. It also raises questions about why qualifications were not verified earlier, how employees were recruited without completed checks and whether existing procedures adequately protect the integrity of a university responsible for medical and health sciences education.
The PAC meeting on October 20, 2026, was chaired by MPA Nisar Ahmed Khuhro and reviewed audit observations relating to DUHS for 2024 and 2025. Participants included committee members Qasim Siraj Soomro and Makhdoom Fakhar Zaman, DUHS Vice-Chancellor Dr Nazli Hussain and other university officials.
According to reports, the university’s Director of Finance, Zainul Abideen Shah, informed the committee that the degree-verification exercise had identified 27 employees with fake qualifications. He said all 27 had been dismissed.
The committee subsequently directed the university to recover the full amount of salaries paid to the employees and sought reports from public universities across Sindh on the verification of their teaching and non-teaching staff.
DUHS has a reported workforce of 5,350 employees. By the time of the latest PAC meeting, 1,945 employees’ educational qualifications had been verified, with 27 found to be fake.
The university had engaged HRSG to carry out the verification process under a contract worth Rs7.36 million, according to the finance director.
The reported fake qualifications covered a range of educational levels and professional credentials. These included Bachelor of Commerce (BCom), Bachelor of Arts (BA), Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Master of Commerce (MCom) degrees, matriculation certificates, nursing diplomas and a master’s degree in computer science.
The affected employees reportedly held positions across different parts of the institution, including receptionists, clerical staff, computer operators, administrative officers, billing personnel, technicians and nursing staff.
Earlier, in December 2025, the PAC examined DUHS audit records for 2021 to 2023 and was informed that 10 employees were found holding fake degrees. At that time, the committee was told that only 450 out of approximately 3,500 employees had undergone verification by the Higher Education Commission (HEC).
An audit observation cited in Dawn’s December 4, 2025, report said that, during a review of contractual employees’ personal files, their degrees and other character-related records had not been verified by the relevant boards, universities or agencies at the time of appointment.
The audit department considered appointments made without verification irregular and warned that the possibility of bogus degrees and certificates could not be ruled out.
The university administration told the PAC in December 2025 that it had invited tenders for degree verification three times but had received no bids. It subsequently engaged HRSG directly to undertake the work.
This earlier record is important because it shows that the problem was not first identified in October 2026. Questions about recruitment checks and the verification backlog had already reached the provincial assembly’s accountability forum.
What happens next?
The immediate tasks are to complete the pending degree checks, establish the circumstances of the 27 cases and implement the PAC’s directions.
For DUHS, the issue extends beyond the dismissal of individual employees. The university must demonstrate that its recruitment controls can reliably verify qualifications before appointments are finalised and that unresolved cases are tracked to completion.
The PAC’s request for verification reports from public universities across Sindh offers an opportunity to examine whether similar weaknesses exist elsewhere in the public higher-education system.
Until the university and relevant authorities publish more detailed findings, the 27 dismissals represent a confirmed development, but not a complete public explanation of how the employees were recruited, who was responsible for checking their qualifications or the full extent of the verification failure.
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