Excelsior Special Correspondent
Jammu, Feb 5: The separatist Hurriyat Conference leaders have sold admissions reserved by the Government of Pakistan for ‘deserving’ students of Jammu and Kashmir in their Medical and Engineering colleges across the country.
Over the years there have been allegations that the separatist Hurriyat Conference leaders are selling majority of around 2 dozen MBBS and Bachelor of Engineering seats reserved for ‘deserving’ students of Jammu and Kashmir in Pakistani Medical and Engineering Colleges.
These admissions are being reserved for the Jammu and Kashmir students for past over a decade. Majority of these admissions are being done on the recommendations of Hurriyat Conference leaders.
Over the years it has been observed that mostly relatives of Hurriyat Conference leaders are being sent to these Medical and Engineering Colleges in Pakistan. There were also allegations that in majority of the cases Hurriyat Conference leaders were selling these admissions for huge sums of money.
The fraud was exposed in Pakistan early this week where head of the Hurriyat Conference (JK) in Pakistan, Mehmood Sagar, was forced to resign and here its chairman Shabir Ahmad Shah was asked to step down. However, both these leaders were given ‘honorable’ exit as no statements were issued about their expulsion.
Sources said that both these leaders were found involved in the fraud and resigned from the amalgam. However, it was not made public but the statements issued by Hurriyat Conference (JK) does not address Shabir Shah as Hurriyat chairman but a senior leader.
Sources said these separatist leaders had been selling the MBBS seats at Rs 13 lakh per admission and BE seats for around Rs 10 lakh for last several years.
The expose of the fraud is a major setback to Pakistani efforts to unite factions of separatist Hurriyat Conference post last year’s Assembly elections in which record number of people cast their ballot.
After the separatists failed to stop people from coming out in large numbers during last year’s Assembly elections, Pakistan had entrusted job of bringing all the three factions of the Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Shabir Ahmad Shah together to Shabir Ahmad Shah.
In Pakistan, all the three factions are working together but the fraud will hamper the unification process.
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