Politicians with unverified degrees must submit all related documents within the deadline in order to be eligible to contest polls. PHOTO: FILE
Politicians with unverified degrees must submit all related documents to the HEC within the deadline in order to be eligible to contest polls.
Once a decision is reached about the authenticity of the degree, the matter will be referred to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for the final decision of permission to contest polls.
“The chief justice of Pakistan has invoked Article 62 and 63 in the matter of fake degrees” said Leghari.
"The controversy revolved around 189 degrees and the HEC is working up till midnight to cooperate with all involved and to speed the process," Leghari added.
Maintaining that full cooperation is significant, the HEC also nominated officials to work with the ECP to facilitate the process.
The issue of fake degrees has cast a shadow over the political future of scores of former lawmakers as degrees of 54 of them have been declared fake so far.
During today’s hearing, the chief justice said that parliamentarians who have yet not submitted their certificates for the verification could also face criminal action against them as per the Constitution of Pakistan for submitting false statements.
Secretary Election Commission Ishtiaq Ahmed presented a report before the court and informed it about the cases of fake degrees against the former parliamentarians.
He apprised the court that the former parliamentarians were repeatedly informed to get their educational degrees verified but in vain.
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@Syed A. Mateen Its not wasting time, if found with fake degrees they will be disqualified on basis of Article 63 whereby you cannot lie and when you proved you did lie in previous election it disqualifies you from contesting.
@Syed A. Mateen: Only dumb/corrupt people for dumb//corrupt leaders.
Honorable CJ
Please do not let these crooks get away. Here is the chance of the impoverished people of Pakistan to get a reprieve from the con that has become the National and Provincial Assemblies of Pakistan.
Nawaz must be regretted to restore CJ but its tooooo late now
It is important to verify the degree of former parliamentarians to make sure they did not submitted fake degrees in 2008 Elections. For new candidates this is not an issue.
The Law isnt about whether you can be an MNA if you have degree or not, you can be. However, please read the report carefully, it mentions article 62 and 63 of the constitution, which is more about the integrity of the lawmakers. They violated the law by submitting false documents and lies in the form of statements. So the issue being raised rightfully by the SC is that many of these MNAs lied their way to become eligible when they law required that you hold degrees. That law may have changed now, but article 62 and 63 have not been changed and so they remain intact, law is law. If our lawmakers cant respect the law, why are they contesting elections to be lawmakers? I'll tell you why: They are doing it to steal our tax money
This is an excellent move by SC, knock and filter out all these liars and thieves in one swoop.
reply to sayed A mateen ,,,,,, sir if u have read about article 62 and 63 ..... it says that any candidate who has fake degree ..is not eligible to contest ..... it is not compulsory for the candidates to hold bachelors degree for their eligibility in the coming elections, but they are accountable before law if they had fake degrees ...... .and they surely will be culprit !!
I wonder beside disqualification are courts going to punish them for forgery? It's a crime right?
Without any soft corner for any wrong doing, I think the CJ is getting too personal with the politicians. Getting notices of micro details regarding politicians and ignoring the violations of the constitution itself by commando is hardly digestible.
Although I feel that those politicians who cheated and became MNA/MPA using fake degrees should be punished, I feel that the law itself is a flaw. I mean what about people like Edhi, Mukhtara Mai etc, they would never ever be able to run for elections. And I simply don't understand that if the law is impacting all the parties, why they just don't revoke the law, get saved from embarrassment and also save the precious time of Supreme Court and Election Commission
These members of parliament are a blight on face of the nation if they entered parliment on fake and false degrees. HEC is equally responsible for the delay in verification These members of parliament should be banned for life