Pending against ex-MPs: SC seeks details of fake degree cases

ECP informs apex court that nomination papers will now be plugged onto the official commission website.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court directed registrars of all high courts to gather details of 34 pending cases related to fake degrees and submit a report within two days. The court issued the orders following information provided by Ishtiaq Ahmed, the secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Ahmed appeared before the bench to respond to a petition filed by former Pakistan Peoples Party lawmaker from Muzaffargarh, Jamshed Dasti, who had challenged the apex court’s declaration that his degree was fake.

The secretary said that out of a total 42 ex-parliamentarians holding fake degrees, only two had been convicted thus far by the session judges in Dera Allah Yar and Dera Ismail Khan.

“As many as 1,170 parliamentarians’ educational certificates were examined, and 69 cases were found fake or invalid by the Higher Education Commission. Later, a committee of the election commission further shortlisted the number to 42,” explained Ahmed.

As eight of these cases were unexamined and pending in different courts, 34 cases were sent to their respective district police officers and district and session judges, Ahmed said.

The commission was also directed to garner information from the police about the status of criminal proceedings against the fake degree holders.



Dasti said he was being victimised after announcing that he would contest elections as an independent candidate against former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar.

The judges instructed Dasti to appear on Thursday, when his petition against the court’s earlier decision will be heard.

Additionally, in quest of more transparency, the commission informed the bench that a plan had been devised to plug in the nomination papers of all candidates for the upcoming polls onto the official ECP website.

Ahmed expressed these intentions in response to the chief justice’s observation that every voter had a right to know what personal information his or her candidate had furnished in the nomination papers.

“[The] ECP should evolve a mechanism enabling the electors to get [a] copy of the nomination papers submitted by the candidates. The commission may fix [a] fee for getting such copies and other restrictions, but the right of information cannot be taken away from the voters,” said Chief Justice Chaudhry.

In a similar vein, Ahmed also assured the court that educational documents of those aspiring to contest elections would now be subjected to verification by the commission and by the HEC.

The matter was heard by a three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and comprising Justices Gulzar Ahmed and Sheikh Azmat Saeed.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2013.