He is the most high profile
Parliamentarian of Altaf Hussain’s Muttahida Qaumi
Movement (MQM) and is also projecting himself as Altaf
Bhai’s successor, should something happen to the
MQM leader in London.
He is the blue-eyed boy of General Pervez Musharraf as
the General telephones him after hearing his dramatic
preachings on the TV. He is the most versatile preacher
of Islamic values and morals on home TV screens round
the clock. He is a prolific speaker and a successful fund-raiser
for charities. He is a junior Minister for Religious Affairs
in the huge cabinet of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
But in addition to all these qualifications, young, dapper
and the stylish member of the National Assembly from Karachi,
"Dr." Aamir Liaquat Hussain, is a fake and a
fraud.
In a stunning investigation by Karachi Urdu Daily “Ummat”
it has been documented and proved that Dr Aamir purchased
fake University degrees to contest the 2002 general election,
forced the Karachi University officials to authenticate
these degrees in a single day and prevented any investigations
by the newspaper to dig deep into the unavailable records
at the University.
The newspaper, however, persisted with the three-month
long probe and was able to obtain the copies of the “University”
degrees Dr Aamir used to make himself eligible to contest
the election for a National Assembly seat on the MQM ticket
from Karachi. He won because of the party ticket and when
MQM joined the Musharraf coalition, he was made a junior
Minister of Religious Affairs in the cabinet.
But his fame came from his TV show on GEO TV "Aalim
Online" a religious program in which viewers phone
in their questions on Islamic issues and he invites two
prominent Islamic scholars every week to answer these
personal and social questions. He also hosts other religious
programs and General Musharraf and his wife Sehba are
so fond of his style of preaching and reciting “Hamds
and Naats”, specially during the month of Ramazan,
that two years ago Sehba Musharraf called him instantly
and told him General Musharraf was crying as he listened
to his voice on TV.
Dr Aamir did not have a graduate degree in 2002 and according
to the investigation he approached a web site in Spain,
The Trinity College & University, which boasts about
providing Bachelors, Masters or even Doctorate degrees,
without attending any class or college. “Everything
by Email” the web site of the College says right
on top with the big slogan: “Get your degree today.”
Dr Aamir bought his “Bachelor of Arts in Islamic
Studies” degree (Serial No: P-2002227 Dated March
17, 1995), got his “Master of Arts in Islamic Studies”
degree (No: P-2002341 Dated March 15, 2002) and his “Doctor
of Philosophy in Islamic Studies” degree (No: P-2002528
Dated April 5, 2002). In what may be a world record worthy
of the Guinness Book of Records. He got his Doctorate
in just three weeks after his Master's degree, if the
documents are to be believed.
Daily Ummat contacted the Karachi University authorities
to find out how these web site Email degrees were authenticated
in a single day, in writing, by the then Registrar of
Karachi University, Prof. NM Aqil Burney. The Registrar
received the application from Dr Aamir on August 24, 2002,
days before filing of his nomination papers for the NA
election and authenticated his degrees though this letter
No PA/2002 Dated August 24, 2002.Prof. Aqil, however,
did leave some elbow room by stating in his letter that
the authentication was “provisional” and the
final decision would be conveyed to the applicant in due
course of time. That decision was neither needed nor taken
nor conveyed to anyone as Dr Aamir had used the provisional
certificate to get himself elected to the Parliament and
the matter was forgotten.
When the newspaper contacted Prof Aqil later to ask how
he could issue the authentication without referring the
documents to the Karachi University’s Equivalence
Committee, he admitted that Dr Aamir had come to him with
degrees from some Spanish University and since these were
not degrees issues by his University, he authenticated
them on the spot. His answer was unconvincing to say the
least. Prof Aqil kept no record of these degrees and when
the newspaper contacted the current Registrar to verify
whether any such record was kept, no one could trace the
file, as none existed.
When the newspaper contacted the Higher Education Commission
in Islamabad, the official authority on the matter, to
verify whether the Trinity College & University of
Spain, which issued the degrees to Dr Aamir, was a recognized
institution by Pakistan, Director General Mohammed Javed
Khan informed the newspaper vide a letter Dated February
23, 2005 that the Trinity College was not recognized.
The letter confirmed the forgery of Dr Aamir and abetment
in the forgery by Prof Aqil to facilitate his candidacy
in the election.
Daily Ummat also obtained copies of the degrees Dr Aamir
presented to the Election Commission and during the investigation
found that the Trinity College had placed exactly similar
samples on its web site, offered the same day for a price.
The investigation leaves Dr Aamir Liaquat Hussain, MQM
Chief Altaf Hussain and General Pervez Musharraf in an
embarrassing political dilemma. Musharraf has been promoting
Dr Aamir as the heir apparent of Altaf Hussain himself
and the way his curve was rising was creating serious
apprehensions within the MQM circles as well.
For Musharraf it would be a triple disaster in just a
few weeks as Dr Aamir would be the third cabinet minister
who has been caught literally with his pants down in the
middle of the road.
His supporter, PPP rebel and currently a minister, Faisal
Saleh Hayat, has already been asked by the Prime Minister
to resign as his bail application was cancelled by the
Supreme Court and National Accountability Bureau has to
arrest him for unpaid loans. Many other candidates in
the 2002 elections were disqualified because they were
defaulters of loans but not Faisal.
Interestingly just before the Supreme Court decision to
cancel his bail, Faisal Saleh Hayat slipped out of the
country and is now residing in London, considering his
options whether to return to Pakistan and land in a jail
or stay away.
Another serious embarrassment for Musharraf has been the
Health Minister in the Punjab Cabinet, Dr Tahir Javed
who absconded from Nebraska after causing the worst Hepatitis
C outbreak in US history and who had forced his insurance
company and the State of Nebraska to pay millions of dollars
to his victims who sued him.
Now the show boy of Musharraf, Dr Aamir Liaquat Hussain
is in the dock. Scores of seasoned politicians, including
former minister Syeda Abida Hussain of Jhang, were either
disqualified or did not contest the 2002 polls because
they did not have graduate degrees. Now we find that some
of those who did, committed a fraud with the law and the
people.
The biggest embarrassment would, however, be for his GEO
TV channel because he hosts a program which is supposed
to teach moral values to its viewers. The host has now
proved to be an immoral person himself.
