HEC returns degrees of 57 lawmakers

The HEC has sent back 57 degrees of parliamentarians to the University of Balochistan to be scrutinised.

QUETTA: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has sent back 57 degrees of parliamentarians to the University of Balochistan to be scrutinised, while 7 other degrees have also been received by the university.

Talking to The Express Tribune on Monday, the university’s vice chancellor Prof Ghulam Nabi said that as some degrees looked dubious, the HEC had sent them back to be thoroughly checked and had provided a pro forma to be filled out. He said that the varsity had received 64 degrees to be checked again and among them seven new degrees had been sent for verification.

“The university records are clear but the FA, FSc and religious seminary degrees of six parliamentarians are reported to be missing,” he said adding that in some cases the father’s names of the candidates were completely different in their matric and bachelor’s degrees.

He said that the university had sent a notice to the MPAs and MNAs asking them to submit their FA and FSc degrees.

“All the degrees should be checked thoroughly so that the confusion can be resolved, but it will take a lot of time,” said Nabi adding “recently three cases had been properly checked when the degrees of Rana Abdula Rauf, Ahmed Yar and Jawad Hussan were declared fake”.

He said that without comprehensive investigations, authentic reports could not be submitted.

Referring to a query about the fake degree of the deputy speaker of Balochistan, he said that a religious seminary of Multan had earlier declared the degree as fake but soon after they sent another report in which the degree was declared authentic and genuine.

However, some sources said that the parliamentarians were using their influence to get their degrees verified, due to which the concerned committees and officers are facing serious difficulties.

University sources believe that more than 50 per cent of the parliamentarians in Balochistan hold fake degrees in their possession, but so far only a few cases have come into the limelight.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2010.