HEC and ECP still waiting for 249 degrees

HEC still waiting for 249 degrees Islamabad The Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) are not on the same page about the issue of verification of lawmakers’ degrees and have provided contradictory facts about the status of the verification process to the Senate Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures, sources told ‘The News’ Thursday.

Sources said HEC higher-ups were caught by surprise when ECP Secretary Ishtiaq Ahmad disclosed before the Senate Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures that the degrees of 1,117 parliamentarians out of 1,170 were genuine while 53 could not be verified.

“HEC officials were surprised by the ECP secretary’s claim that only 53 degrees were fake. This is puzzling because 249 lawmakers are yet to provide their Degrees Supplementary Forms (DSF) without which their degrees cannot be verified. HEC are wondering how it’s possible to conclude the verification process when all documents haven’t yet been received?” sources said.

According to official data, as many as 1,094 graduation degrees of lawmakers have been submitted to the HEC for verification, but 249 lawmakers have yet to provide their degrees supplementary forms. Due to this, the HEC has been unable to verify their degrees in line with procedures.

Sources said a majority of the reluctant lawmakers “would like to know the relevant provision of law, under which these certificates are required to be produced before the HEC for the purpose of verification of BA degrees, since the degrees have already been verified by the relevant universities/institutions.”

HEC officials claim there are many instances where people with fake FA certificates succeed in obtaining a genuine BA degree, and those with a bogus BA degree get a genuine masters degree. Thus, the HEC wants to see their previous degrees and ascertain if the basis on which the later degree was obtained was valid.

Talking to The News, HEC Chairperson Dr. Javaid Laghari said the process of verifying degrees had not yet been concluded since the Commission had not received the supplementary forms of 249 parliamentarians. “The process of verification of degrees can’t be completed until the HEC receives and verifies the degree supplementary forms of each and every parliamentarian,” he said. “We wrote a letter to the ECP about a month and a half ago to ask it to provide the required documents for verification but have so far received no response,” he said.

The Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Rules of Procedures and Privileges, Senator Tahir Mashhadi, confirmed to The News that the ECP secretary had informed the committee that the degree verification process was complete and except for 53 degrees, all degrees had been deemed genuine.

It is pertinent to mention that the Standing Committee took strong exception to a privilege motion introduced by senators Babar Awan, Ishaq Dar, Wasim Sajjad, Nilofar Bakhtiar and others regarding the inclusion of their names in the fake degrees verification process. The ECP secretary presented their viewpoint in the meeting of the Standing Committee in which he made the ‘astonishing disclosure’ that the degrees verification process was complete.

Senator Tahir Mashhadi said he was also surprised that all degrees had supposedly been verified because no one had informed parliamentarians about it. “I asked the ECP secretary whether he informed the prime minister or issued any press release about the completion of the verification process. His answer was no,” he said.
The ECP focal person, Afzal Khan, was not available for comments despite repeated calls by these correspondents.The news