KARACHI, March 9: 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." Click to View Web site
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. Click to View the Registrar's letter of authentication
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. Click to view DG's letter
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. (see images above)
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