Someone else’s degree
Legislator allegedly used someone else's degree to qualify for the 2008 general elections.
ISLAMABAD:
While the fake degree issue has created ripples in the political circles of the country, a new case of political chicanery has been detected where a legislator allegedly used someone else’s degree to qualify for the 2008 general elections.
The case was detected when the Higher Education Commission (HEC) sent the degree of Raja Shoukat Aziz Bhatti, a PML-Q legislator from PP-4 Rawalpindi, to the Punjab University for verification.
According to internal communication between the HEC and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the verification process revealed that the caste of MPA as per the assembly record is “Bhatti Rajput”, while the record of the university shows that the cast of the person who was issued the said degree is “Sheikh”.
All other records, including the nomination papers of the legislator, show his full name as Shoukat Aziz Bhatti and that he had returned to the assembly with the same name.
The University of Punjab further dug out that in the admission form, the enrolled person with the name Shoukat Aziz wrote down “Sheikh” in the column of caste. The HEC forwarded the case to the ECP which, without mentioning the contents of the investigation, asked the legislator to clarify his caste. The MPA, in response, gave in writing that his caste was “Bhatti Rajput”.
To resolve the matter, the ECP has asked the MPA concerned and the registrar of the university to appear before the commission on September 23. The concerned authorities suspect that the assembly member had used the degree of some other person, who coincidentally had the same name and father’s name, to fulfill the condition of having at least graduation qualification to contest elections.
According to the Punjab Assembly official record, available on its website, the profile of the member shows that he graduated from the Government College, Asghar Mall, Rawalpindi in 1999 while the degree he submitted before contesting polls was issued in 1991, eight years back.
In assembly record it is written “Raja Shoukat alias Mr Shoukat Aziz Bhatti, son of Raja Abdul Aziz Bhatti, was born on June 28, 1965 at Rawalpindi. He served as member of the Rawalpindi district council during 1998-99 and as nazim union council-14, Gujar Khan Tehsil of Rawalpindi district during 2001-02 and 2005-07. He has also functioned as member of the Public Safety Commission during 2001-02. He has been elected as an MPA in general elections 2008 and is functioning as chairman of the provincial assembly’s standing committee on environment protection. The ECP has asked the member to bring all his educational records. The commission has also asked the registrar of the Punjab University to bring their records.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 18th, 2010.
While the fake degree issue has created ripples in the political circles of the country, a new case of political chicanery has been detected where a legislator allegedly used someone else’s degree to qualify for the 2008 general elections.
The case was detected when the Higher Education Commission (HEC) sent the degree of Raja Shoukat Aziz Bhatti, a PML-Q legislator from PP-4 Rawalpindi, to the Punjab University for verification.
According to internal communication between the HEC and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the verification process revealed that the caste of MPA as per the assembly record is “Bhatti Rajput”, while the record of the university shows that the cast of the person who was issued the said degree is “Sheikh”.
All other records, including the nomination papers of the legislator, show his full name as Shoukat Aziz Bhatti and that he had returned to the assembly with the same name.
The University of Punjab further dug out that in the admission form, the enrolled person with the name Shoukat Aziz wrote down “Sheikh” in the column of caste. The HEC forwarded the case to the ECP which, without mentioning the contents of the investigation, asked the legislator to clarify his caste. The MPA, in response, gave in writing that his caste was “Bhatti Rajput”.
To resolve the matter, the ECP has asked the MPA concerned and the registrar of the university to appear before the commission on September 23. The concerned authorities suspect that the assembly member had used the degree of some other person, who coincidentally had the same name and father’s name, to fulfill the condition of having at least graduation qualification to contest elections.
According to the Punjab Assembly official record, available on its website, the profile of the member shows that he graduated from the Government College, Asghar Mall, Rawalpindi in 1999 while the degree he submitted before contesting polls was issued in 1991, eight years back.
In assembly record it is written “Raja Shoukat alias Mr Shoukat Aziz Bhatti, son of Raja Abdul Aziz Bhatti, was born on June 28, 1965 at Rawalpindi. He served as member of the Rawalpindi district council during 1998-99 and as nazim union council-14, Gujar Khan Tehsil of Rawalpindi district during 2001-02 and 2005-07. He has also functioned as member of the Public Safety Commission during 2001-02. He has been elected as an MPA in general elections 2008 and is functioning as chairman of the provincial assembly’s standing committee on environment protection. The ECP has asked the member to bring all his educational records. The commission has also asked the registrar of the Punjab University to bring their records.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 18th, 2010.