Poll body turns to speakers for MP degrees
Up to 428 MPs have not shared their academic records as yet.
ISLAMABAD:
Lacking any legal say in the affairs of ‘defiant’ public representatives, the Election Commission has approached the ‘custodians’ of the legislative houses to ask 428 members to submit their Matriculation and Intermediate certificates for verification.
On a request of the Higher Education Commission, the poll body has written letters to the speakers of the National Assembly, the four provincial assemblies and the Senate chairman, requesting them to ask those legislators to provide their Secondary and Higher Secondary School certificates so that the process of verification of degrees could be completed.
“We have not only written letters to the speakers and the Senate chairman but have also written letters directly to the members at their three addresses — their native home address, parliamentary lodges and assembly addresses to immediately provide these certificates,” an official of the Election Commission said.
The process of verification of educational certificates of members of the lower and upper houses of parliament and provincial assemblies has come to a halt after the universities concerned, despite repeated attempts, failed to get the required documents from these members. They approached the HEC which handed over the task to the universities themselves.
HEC received a total of 1,084 degree and asnad (religious schools degrees) of MPs. They sent these degrees to the universities concerned to determine their genuineness through a detailed process of verification.
Along with graduation degrees, the universities asked the members to provide the certificates of their earlier education but a major chunk of these members turned a deaf ear to the requests.
In the verification process 553 were held valid while 54 were deemed fake. But the degrees of 428 deputies were still unverified as they did not submit their Matriculation and Intermediate certificates – a move that is necessary for the verification process.
HEC sources said among those who did not submit these certificates are legislators from both the opposition and treasury benches.
There are another 11 members whose graduation certificates were not received by the HEC.
Officials at both the HEC and the Election Commission have warned that an inflexible attitude could jeopardise the whole process of verification in case the members do not cooperate.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 15th, 2010.
Lacking any legal say in the affairs of ‘defiant’ public representatives, the Election Commission has approached the ‘custodians’ of the legislative houses to ask 428 members to submit their Matriculation and Intermediate certificates for verification.
On a request of the Higher Education Commission, the poll body has written letters to the speakers of the National Assembly, the four provincial assemblies and the Senate chairman, requesting them to ask those legislators to provide their Secondary and Higher Secondary School certificates so that the process of verification of degrees could be completed.
“We have not only written letters to the speakers and the Senate chairman but have also written letters directly to the members at their three addresses — their native home address, parliamentary lodges and assembly addresses to immediately provide these certificates,” an official of the Election Commission said.
The process of verification of educational certificates of members of the lower and upper houses of parliament and provincial assemblies has come to a halt after the universities concerned, despite repeated attempts, failed to get the required documents from these members. They approached the HEC which handed over the task to the universities themselves.
HEC received a total of 1,084 degree and asnad (religious schools degrees) of MPs. They sent these degrees to the universities concerned to determine their genuineness through a detailed process of verification.
Along with graduation degrees, the universities asked the members to provide the certificates of their earlier education but a major chunk of these members turned a deaf ear to the requests.
In the verification process 553 were held valid while 54 were deemed fake. But the degrees of 428 deputies were still unverified as they did not submit their Matriculation and Intermediate certificates – a move that is necessary for the verification process.
HEC sources said among those who did not submit these certificates are legislators from both the opposition and treasury benches.
There are another 11 members whose graduation certificates were not received by the HEC.
Officials at both the HEC and the Election Commission have warned that an inflexible attitude could jeopardise the whole process of verification in case the members do not cooperate.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 15th, 2010.