249 parliamentarians have not submitted their degrees. PHOTO: CREATIVE COMMONS
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, heading a three-member bench, was hearing a case regarding fake degrees being held by elected parliamentarians.
The bench ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan to ease the process of raising objections over nomination papers and said that it was the peoples’ right to raise objections and to seek information regarding their representatives.
The people should not be deprived of their rights as they have matured enough to know who to vote for, the bench added.
During the hearing, the bench asked the secretary election commission regarding the steps taken for the verification of candidates’ degrees, and said that it should be ensured that only qualified and honest people are elected to the parliament.
The secretary said that there were 69 cases of fake degrees and the relative institutions have been asked to take action against 34 of them.
Around 249 parliamentarians have not submitted their Matric and FA degrees to the commission yet, he added.
The court ordered registrars of all high courts to provide details regarding fake degree cases and adjourned the hearing till March 28.
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@Ali Z: Completely Agree with what you are saying! & as a matter of fact what you said is actually a true Islamic democratic way of electing your leaders! E.g. A Phd Doctorate Holder's Vote could never be made equal to an uneducated person's vote!!
Its super important that only a qualified degree holder is allowed to contest the election and even more important should be implementation of a lifetime ban on a person who has presented a ' fake' degree. Unless we bring in tough measures it will be hard to get the ' refined ' cheats and fraudsters out of this system.
@ All:
This is extremely important and I mean more important than having graduate election candidates. The problem starts with the choosers and the choice comes later on. We should at least push through the idea of giving more weight to an educated persons vote.
Do you want your fate to be decided by an uneducated person? What are the priorities of the uneducated public? Will they be able to make a wise voting decision or will it be based on who is offering them free food on the voting day?
@Ali Z: And this move would certainly make PPP disappear from the political scene :)
@Ali Z: lolz
@ Ali Z Your suggestion of matric pass criteria for a voter will disenfranchise majority of electorate keeping in view 30 percent literacy rate in the country.
The ECP should also check degrees of those candidates who contested last election but did not succeed. It is important to check their integrity and honesty.
Or 1 vote of a matric pass should be equal to two votes of an uneducated person
Thx SC!
It was so important to have health as also a federal subject .
18th amendment has been ruinous for Pakistan.