Balochistan minister holds a fake degree

QUETTA: Chief of the Balochistan chapter of National Party (NP) Dr Yasin Baloch has moved the Balochistan High Court (BHC) against provincial minister for industries and commerce Syed Ehsan Shah, claiming that he is holding a fake academic degree and thus stands disqualified from becoming a member of the Balochistan Assembly.

Speaking at a news conference at the party secretariat in Quetta on Tuesday, Baloch accused the provincial minister of violating the constitution by contesting elections on the basis of a “fake degree.” “We have evidence that the minister had submitted a fake degree to the Election Commission for contesting the 2008 general elections,” he said, adding that Shah had been winning the Balochistan Assembly seat (PB-48 Kech) since 1997. “He (Shah) also misused his powers and embezzled funds while he was serving as provincial finance minister.

The case is still on the record of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB),” alleged Dr Baloch. He added that the BHC would hear the case on May 27. Over in Islamabad, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Education on Tuesday handed over degrees of 873 lawmakers to the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for verification. The committee meeting was chaired by Abid Sher Ali at the Parliament House. The degrees were submitted by the Election Commission secretary.

Subsequently, the committee gave 873 degrees of parliamentarians, including those of 249 National Assembly members, to the HEC for verification. The lawmakers whose degrees will be verified include 216 from Punjab, 106 from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 106 from Sindh and 64 from Balochistan. (WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM WIRES)

Published in the Express Tribune, May 26th, 2010.