Valid argument: Apex court asks HEC to verify lawmaker’s degree

Maiza Hameed’s counsel says that her testimonials were neither forged nor fabricated.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to verify Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s National Assembly member Maiza Hameed’s O- and A- level certificates again — after hearing arguments from both sides.

The court in its written order mentioned that “during the course of arguments, it has come to light that to date the genuineness of the O- and A - Level testimonials of Maiza has not been verified.”

In its report, the HEC stated that the certificates obtained from the University of London were forwarded to the Inter Board Committee chairman on April 4 for verification, responding to which the board said that Maiza had not appeared for two compulsory subjects, English language and mathematics, in O Levels while she was also short of one elective subject from her GCE A- levels.

According to the prevailing criterion set by the IBCC, a candidate needs to pass five compulsory subjects, including English and mathematics, along with three other elective subjects to pass their GCE O- levels, while a candidate needs to appear for three subjects to get an equivalence certificate provided by the IBCC.

The PML-N MNA filed an application contending that she had successfully passed her O- and A- levels exams on the basis of which she was admitted to the Islamia University Bahawalpur.

Maiza’s counsel Wasim Sajjad presented the argument that the testimonials and documents pertaining to the 0- and A- level examinations were not held to be forged or fabricated. He added that his client had made full disclosure of her educational qualifications when she applied for a bachelor’s degree in the university.

Sajjad said that since Maiza was enrolled in the university on the basis of these documents, the blame should not be fixed on his client but on the university which made the error.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 14^th, 2013.