Labour minister’s academic paper found ‘irrelevant’

HEC has handed over to the a fresh list of parliamentarians whose degrees are either illegible or irrelevant.

ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has handed over to the Election Commission (EC) a fresh list of parliamentarians whose degrees are either illegible or irrelevant documents have been submitted by them. Minister for Labour and Manpower Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah also features in the list.

The fresh list, available with The Express Tribune, contains the names of 10 members of the National Assembly, nine Punjab Assembly members and three deputies of the Balochistan Assembly .

It is learnt that Khursheed Shah had submitted a provisional certificate showing that he had passed his LLB exam back in the ‘80s. But the Higher Education Commission has returned the document to the Election Commission and asked for a copy of Shah’s bachelor’s degree instead of other irrelevant documents.

Besides Khursheed Shah, the list contains names of some prominent members, including Chairperson of the National Assembly standing committee on law and justice Naseem Akhtar Chaudhry.

Parliamentary Secretary for Interior Captain (retd) Ghulam Mujtaba Kharral is also among those MPs whose documents are either illegible or do not contain roll number and registration number.

The name of Justice (retd) Iftikhar Ahmed Cheema who belongs to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz also figures in the list.

The HEC has also raised objections on the qualification documents of Syed Zafar Ali Shah, one of the senior members of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

Moreover, the HEC has also returned the copies of degrees submitted by Ishrat Ashraf, Akram Masih Gil, Haji Muhammad Umar and Areesh Kumar.

In Punjab, the members whose degrees have been returned are Muhammad Javed Iqbal, Muhammad Waris Kalo, Adil Hussain, Raja Ejaz Ahmed Noon, Karam Dad Wahla, Malik Iqbal Ahmed Langriyal, Dr. Faiza Asghar, Tayyaba Zameer and Nargis Zafar.

Three members of the Balochistan Assembly are Haji Muhammad Nawaz, Mir Nasir Khan Jamali and Zahoor Hussain Khan Khosa whose documents have been returned by the HEC.

Sources said the HEC has asked the Election Commission to ask for original documents of these MPs whose copies of degrees are illegible or they have submitted irrelevant documents.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 7^th, 2010