Twenty-seven fake degrees among 1,945 verified, 3,400 still unchecked: Dow University of Health Sciences and the Sindh Public Accounts Committee, October 2026

Dow University of Health Sciences in Karachi is one of Pakistan's largest public medical universities, with its own teaching hospitals, laboratories and an MBBS intake that includes international students. Like other public universities in Sindh it answers to the provincial assembly's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on audit matters. In October 2026 that committee heard how many of the university's own staff had been hired on qualifications that did not exist.

According to The Express Tribune (21 October 2026), the PAC, chaired by Nisar Khuhro, reviewed the university's audit paragraphs for 2024 and 2025 at a meeting on Tuesday. The university's director of finance, Zainul Abideen Shah, told the committee that degree verification had been outsourced to a firm, HRSG, under a Rs7.36 million contract. Of 5,350 employees, 1,945 degrees had been verified and 27 were found to be fake; more than 3,400 cases were still pending. All 27 employees had been dismissed. Pakistan Observer, which said the pending cases were yet to be verified through the Higher Education Commission (HEC), and Bloom Pakistan reported the same figures from the meeting.

The Tribune and Minute Mirror listed the roles involved: receptionists, clerks, computer operators, administrative officers, billing staff, technicians and nursing personnel. The bogus documents included BA, BSc, BCom and MCom degrees, matriculation certificates, nursing diplomas and a master's degree in computer science. Vice Chancellor Dr Nazli Hussain told the committee that more than 70 per cent of the degrees held by academic doctors had been verified and the rest were being processed. The PAC ordered the university to recover every salary paid to the 27 dismissed employees and directed all public universities in Sindh to verify the credentials of their academic and non-academic staff and report back. Bloom Pakistan and the Tribune also reported the university's finances as put to the committee: an annual budget of Rs26 billion, about Rs25 billion in revenue from academic, radiology, laboratory and other services, Rs4.5 billion a year in student fees, annual fees of Rs60,000 on open-merit seats and Rs500,000 on self-finance seats, and international fees of US$10,000 to US$18,000 a year.

The check that failed was verification at the point of hiring. Twenty-seven people were on the payroll with certificates nobody had confirmed, and the fakes came to light only after the university paid an outside firm to run each degree through the HEC. Even then, close to two thirds of the staff were still unverified when the committee met.

For students, the lesson runs in both directions. A degree is only worth what the issuing institution will confirm, which is why employers and regulators abroad write to the university rather than trusting the paper. When choosing a college, ask who verifies the credentials of the people teaching and treating patients, and when applying anywhere, expect the same scrutiny of your own certificates. Keep originals safe, because verification requests will come back to you.