Harvard Admission Lie and Fraud: Pakistani Physics Gold Medallist Laiba Dies in Islamabad

Rana Muhammad Ijaz has lived with his family for more than three decades in the apartment above the Rana Malik Center, a dairy shop in Islamabad's G-10 neighbourhood that sells milk, fresh yoghurt, lassi and desi ghee. His youngest daughter Laiba used to make tea for him every morning and again at night before bedtime. Now that she is gone, her father says, he misses it all.

Laiba Ijaz, 24, was a physics gold medallist from the publicly funded International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI). She was found dead near her home on October 9. According to the initial findings of a police case, she likely died by suicide after she and her family were defrauded of millions of rupees by a man who promised her admission to Harvard University in the United States.

Muhammad Noman, accused of the fraud, was arrested two days later. He died on October 20 after being shot while in police custody. Police said his accomplices had opened fire to free him.

On October 21, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi visited the family and handed over more than 5 million rupees ($18,000) that officials said had been recovered from Noman.

Ijaz studied until the eighth grade and his wife until grade 10, but all four of their daughters went to university. Two of the sisters studied mathematics, while one of Laiba's elder sisters spent a year in China on a scholarship learning Mandarin. Laiba also studied on scholarships and won the gold medal at her university; the day she got it, her father said, she danced and jumped in front of her sisters.

Laiba later taught science at an Islamabad school and gave tuition classes to children between grades 2 and 6. IIUI offered her a scholarship to study in Saudi Arabia, but she wanted to pursue higher studies in the US, her father said.

Laiba met Noman this year at a call centre where she worked in Islamabad's Blue Area, the capital's main business district. Her hours were late and most of her colleagues were male; uncomfortable with that work environment, her father encouraged her to leave, and she quit. Noman then began coming to the shop to buy milk and yoghurt and asked about Laiba's plans to study in Saudi Arabia. He claimed to work at the Supreme Court, showed Ijaz a service card and said he needed no licence because he was a government employee.

The family paid in stages, starting with 2.2 million rupees ($7,900) for university fees, Ijaz said. Noman later claimed Harvard needed a statement proving 7.2 million rupees ($25,900) in funds, which he insisted had to pass through his account to be converted into dollars. To help his daughter, Ijaz sold a plot he owned and also sold the family jewellery.

Documents shared by the family appeared to trace a real application: Harvard offer and scholarship letters, a US immigration form with an official-looking stamp, a sponsor's affidavit from a New York relative, an embassy record bearing Laiba's photograph and a business-class ticket to Boston. The final file, handed over in late September, also contained a bank statement in Laiba's name and an October 12 visa interview date, Ijaz said.

In early October, Ijaz called Noman to help prepare his daughter for the interview. Noman said he was in Quetta and would return the next day. Suspicious of his evasiveness, the family showed the documents to a travel agent and discovered the Boston ticket was fake. A lawyer neighbour checked the file and told them none of the documents was genuine. They learned the truth on October 6, Ijaz said.

On October 9, as Ijaz prepared to close his shop for Friday prayers, Laiba told him Noman had sent her a message and would pray at their area mosque and then come to see the family. Her father told her to stay inside and asked his wife to ensure she did. When he returned, his wife said Laiba had received a message from Noman and left despite her mother's protests. Laiba's brother-in-law, Zaid bin Afzal, and one of her brothers went to search for her, while one of her sisters guided them using an app that traced her phone to an area near the house. They found her body at about 3:30pm, less than two hours after she had left home. Zaid called the police emergency number.

Laiba was among a growing number of Pakistanis hoping to study in the US. During the 2024-2025 school year, more than 13,000 Pakistani students were enrolled at US institutions, a 75 percent increase from 2017-2018, according to the Institute of International Education's Open Doors report.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said Noman was not a registered visa agent. According to the industry body All Pakistan Association of Foreign Education and Immigration Consultants, the government does not regulate education consultancies. Nushmiya Sukhera, cofounder of CollegeWorks, a college consultancy in Lahore, said she does not know of a regulatory body that checks or registers education consultants, and that no education consultancy can guarantee admission.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered Noman's arrest a day after Laiba died. Police and the FIA registered separate cases. Police said that on October 20 four men on two motorcycles opened fire as Noman was being taken to recover evidence; according to police, the men were trying to help Noman escape but ended up shooting him, and he died while being treated for his bullet wounds. Authorities are investigating the attack on Noman, but no one has been arrested yet.

A senior police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said investigations into Laiba's death were ongoing. Initial postmortem findings pointed to suicide, the official said, adding that footage showed Laiba leaving home on her own with a phone in her hand. The remaining forensic report usually takes 15 to 20 days. But Ijaz and his family refuse to accept that Laiba died by suicide. Zaid said she could not have done this herself; in his words, Noman killed her.