At a time when the country is struggling to project its soft image across the globe by attracting domestic and foreign tourists, the ruling PML-N has chosen a tainted person to uplift the tourism sector of the country – a step which has raised many eyebrows.
Following the tradition to overlook competency and to accommodate loyalists, the federal government appointed Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor as the managing director of the struggling Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) a few months ago.
Ghafoor, who remained Punjab prisons minister from 2008 to 2012, has a dubious and chequered history and has previously made headlines for attaining two degrees through impersonators who took his exams for him.
Chaudhary-Baig officially undertook all examinations as ‘Ghafoor Baig son of Surjan Khan’, whereas he is officially known by two names – Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor Khan and Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor- son of Ch Surjan Khan.
It was alleged that he attained his intermediate (FA) degree, through an impersonator named Muhammad Akram, and his master’s degree in Punjabi through an impersonator named Amjad Ali who was arrested by the police from Government Islamia High School Sheikhupura (IHSS). Both impersonators were arrested and presented affidavits attesting that they appeared in exams for Ghafoor.
Reportedly, Ghafoor took three examinations during various stints of the PML-N and two FIRs were registered against him for impersonation.
An FIR City Raiwind Police Station was registered in Akram’s FA degree case while another FIR was registered in Amjad’s master’s degree case with the City Division Police Station, Sheikhupura.
The first disciplinary committee found the MPA guilty, while the second committee – which underwent two changes in members even during the proceedings – allowed Ghafoor a special chance for hearing without obtaining the necessary permission to do so from the competent authority.
The charges of impersonation were proven against him and he was disqualified and barred for five years from taking any exams. A committee gave a clean chit to the accused in May 1999, while the controller of examinations filed an appeal to the Board of Secondary and Intermediate Education (BISE) chairman to reinvestigate the matter.
The committee suggested the BISE to quash his intermediate certificate and on the recommendations of the committee, another FIR was registered with the Gulberg Police Station against Akram and Ghafoor, leading to Akram being punished, while Ghafoor was discharged from the FIR honourably.
When this scribe contacted PTDC MD Chaudhary Abdul Ghafoor for his comment on the matter, the MD hurled threats and insults, warning of dire consequences if the story was printed.
“You are an agent of RAW and Mossad. You are trying to blackmail me. I will take you to task if you try to publish this crap,” shouted Abdul Ghafoor.
“You don’t know who I am. I will teach you (a lesson),” added the PTDC chief. “Do you know I am working on honorary basis? I don’t even have enough to pay the school fee for my children. How dare you talk about me like this?” he added.
When asked how asking a question about his past was tantamount to blackmail, the furious PTDC managing director said that he knew how such deals are made.
“I know everything about how this is done,” he asserted without elaborating.
He was thrice requested to comment on his disqualification by a court of law but refused to do so. He then started using abusive language and said, “If the committee didn’t dare to do anything against me, then how can the media harm me?”
