A high profile Pakistan People's Party (PPP) minister has also been found holding a doctorate degree issued by a fake US university declared to be ‘fraud' by an authentic US organization and fined by a US court, said a news report. Although Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr. Babar Awan said his degree was valid, everybody else says it was fake and was wrongfully awarded by a university that was never accredited for such degree programs and was shut down in 2000 for being fraud, the report published by the leading English language daily The News said. The US Educational Foundation (USEF) in Pakistan confirmed that this University was never allowed to offer degree programs, including PhD. “It was a fraud,” the USEF said. The minister, who admitted to have got his PhD degree from the University of Monticello ,US in 1997-98 through its distant learning program (correspondence course), however, insisted that his PhD was valid. But the USEF Pakistan is of the view that the “fraud” university was closed down in the year 2000 and was also fined $1.7 million for befooling innumerable international aspirants of different degree programs. The USEF disclosed that a court in Hawaii had also directed the university management to return all the tuition fees of the students, who had enrolled with the institute. Acting spokesperson of the US embassy in Islamabad Wes Robertson when approached said that the USEF Pakistan is an organizational set-up to promote opportunities and assist students intending to study in Pakistan and vice versa. “The USEF Pakistan gives accurate and credible information.” To a question if there exists any university in the US by the name of Monticello, the USEF Pakistan said: “The closest that any university comes to that name is University of Arkansas, which is in the town of Monticello. There was an unaccredited institute named Monticello University but it was closed down.” __
