The Scarlet ‘L’


Quatrina Hosain July 10, 2010

In an effort to escape the images of carnage on television screens, the vacuous and inane statements coming from every corner and the depressing discussions with the few people desperately trying to find a way out of the morass that has engulfed the nation, I turned for relief to a re-reading of favourite classics. After enjoying Jane Austen’s Persuasion all over again, I picked up Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. And as I settled down for a relaxing read, the news of the Punjab Assembly’s resolution against the media for coverage of the fake degrees scandal hit the airwaves. And immediately, my thoughts turned to demanding all legislators with fake degrees be required to wear a Scarlet ‘L’ embroidered on their crisp white kurtas. ‘L’ for Liars!

The saga of the fake degrees scandal  — and scandalous it is — goes beyond any resolution passed by the Punjab Assembly, media boycotts of assembly proceedings in the four provinces or the extreme reactions to media coverage of parliamentarians holding fake degrees or degrees from educational institutions without formal accreditation in their home countries.

At the heart of the issue is the simple fact that legislators, who signed application papers for contesting elections to the Election Commission, also swore that the information contained in their applications was correct and true. This means they committed a criminal offence and should face prosecution. People are perfectly free to obtain fake degrees to lie to themselves. They can even frame these fake degrees to display in their homes. But once these fake credentials are submitted to any institution, a criminal offence has been committed. Presenting a fake degree for a job would result in instant termination as soon as the fraud was discovered. And it is unlikely that person would receive employment with that organisation again. So why should the rules be different for legislators? They should lose their jobs and not get that job again.

The requirement for a college degree to be a parliamentarian was introduced by former President General (retd) Pervez Musharraf. For better or for worse, that requirement has been removed. But that does not absolve those who lied, to the Election Commission and to the nation, from the crime that was committed at the time the requirement was in force.

It would be interesting to see what the fake degree holders listed on their application forms for the computerised national identity cards issued by Nadra. While the card itself does not list educational qualifications, the application form does require that information.

Unfortunately, legislators who found themselves in hot water after the Supreme Court started hearing cases on the issue, some guilty legislators opted to resign — not from any sense of shame and embarrassment, but simply to contest the inevitable by-election since the requirement is no longer in force. Hence Jamshed Dasti is back in the National Assembly.

But now that the Higher Education Commission has started announcing the results of the verification of the degrees, the next step must be prosecution for lying on an official document and being barred from contesting elections on grounds of being convicted. Until that happens, I will always envision a large embroidered ‘L’ on every bulky bosom, heaving with unholy indignation at being proven to the world as a liar.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11th, 2010.

COMMENTS (6)

Hamza Khan | 13 years ago | Reply "Next step should be the prosecution for lying on an official document" There is an official document, the most sacred The Constitution of Pakistan. How many many now passing judgements on the politicians for lying have lied and cheated the Constitution of Pakistan.? Media can not point a finger at them because it fears them. Media can not ask the army for being part and parcel of The one who with the help of judiciary lied about the oath they took to safegaurd it, because it is afraid. So only politicians are left for them to redicule. Media is wrong yet it has the right to criticise the way it wants to. But what we witnessed yersterday outside the Punjab Assembly( not inside) was a shame. Media had walked out, thus exercising their democratic right. After that whatever media did was hooliganism and the moment they resorted to that they were a mob not media. We have seen lawyers doing it, now mediamen are asking an elected assembly to take back a resolution. Qatrina you have grabbed the right to say whatever you want to on your talk Show. It is time for you to speak up that though you do not like the passing of the resolution by Punjab Assembly, but they are legislatures, elected by the people and they also exercised their right if they felt agrieved.
Farah Zahidi Moazzam | 13 years ago | Reply Quatrina I am a writer too and I have long admired your honest work. It is brilliant how you have equated the situation with Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter". I was reading it recently, and thinking how many metaphors were hidden in it for Pakistan today. The Puritanical values, a society split into schims of "Liberal Fanatics" and "Fundamentalist Fanatics", people ostracized for being liberal OR for being religious....we are in need of people like "Hester" who can stand up and own their mistakes. But the good people in Pakistan we have are usually dull, passive and guilt-ridden like Dimmesdale. And in the political arena and ruling class, I am exhausted by seeing just the sheer number of evil characters like Chillingworth. Thank you for writing this and making us think....The only hope is that some of us still dare to "think, therefore, we are"!
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