EC meets to implement SC verdict

The ECP has convened a meeting of officials in a move to implement the SC's verdict on lawmakers with fake degrees.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has convened a meeting of officials in a move to implement the Supreme Court’s verdict on the issue of lawmakers with fake degrees.

On Thursday, the court directed the ECP to act against all politicians who had contested the 2008 general elections using forged documents and academic degrees, stating that it was the commission’s obligation to do so.

“The ECP has asked the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and other relevant departments to send their findings about the degrees of parliamentarians,” the commission’s Secretary Ishtiaq Ahmed told the BBC Urdu. “The findings will be sent to relevant officials who will give a decision on the degrees within three months,” he added.

Khan said that the district and sessions judges and the Election Tribunal were currently hearing around 70 cases of fake degrees. Of these, judgments on 30 cases have been handed down while more petitions were being filed in courts.

Khan said the chief election commissioner will appoint a senior officer to oversee the matter who will finalise a strategy with the coordination of other departments in accordance with the Supreme Court’s ruling.

About the HEC’s reservations over the fake degrees of some parliamentarians, Khan said the HEC has said that it cannot be verified which institutions issued these degrees.  He said Chairman of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Education Abid Sher Ali had sought details of degrees of 1,150 lawmakers, which have been provided to the committee.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2010.