ISLAMABAD: Only one member of parliament appeared before the Election Commission on Monday regarding the fake degrees case.
Balochistan Minister for Population Welfare, Muhammad Khan Toor appeared before the Election Commission.
The Election Commission had summoned 15 parliamentarians in the fake degrees case, three of whom are members of the National Assembly.
The Commission has now summoned the absent parliamentarians on October 21, as the commission hopes to complete the probe by October 25.
Updated from print edition (below)
15 legislators to defend academic credentials
The fake degrees’ saga is far from over. Another provincial minister along with 14 other legislators is appearing before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to defend his dubious degree on Monday (today).
The elected representatives will appear before the special committee of ECP with their degrees declared fake by the Higher Education Commission (HEC).
Balochistan Minister Muhammad Khan Toor, who claims to have received his degree from University of Karachi, will justify his position, Muhammad Afzal Khan, head of the three-member ECP committee probing the matter, told The Express Tribune. HEC focal person Dr Rahim Bux Channa and Deputy Secretary ECP Jalil Naqvi are other members of the committee.
“It is difficult to say that the issue of fake degrees will come to an end by the end of this month as the parliamentarians are not cooperating with the special committee,” Khan said.
Interestingly, women parliamentarians, who are facing trial for holding fake degrees, have been elected on reserved seats. This point was highlighted by the Supreme Court in a self-initiated case concerning fake degree-holding women parliamentarians.
Former President Pervez Musharraf had introduced the ordinance allocating a 30 per cent quota for women in parliament to correct gender imbalance to a certain degree.
Samina Khawar Hayat, who has a fake degree from Riphah International University and was elected on a reserved seat will appear before the ECP committee. Saima Aziz, who obtained a fake degree from Islamia University Bahawalpur and elected on a reserved seat, will also be grilled by the HEC panel today.
Other women parliamentarians, who obtained fake degrees from the University of Punjab and were elected on reserved seats are Nasim Nasir Khawaja, Shamaila Rana, Seemal Kamran, Farah Deeba, Syed Majida Zaidi and Afshan Farooq.
Among male members of Punjab Assembly who are to appear before the HEC committee are Ijaz Ahmad and Sardar Meer Badshah Khan Qaisrani. The latter obtained a dubious degree from the University of Sindh.
Member National Assembly Hayatullah Khan Tareen (NA-155), who received his degree from Sindh University, Ghulam Dastigeer Rajar (NA-235) and Muhammad Safdar Gill (NA-274) are also set to appear before the panel to defend their academic credentials.
The parliamentarian who got a fake degree purportedly from Winona University, USA, is Mazhar Hayat who was elected from NA-138.
The Supreme Court had directed the ECP to complete the process of all lawmakers’ degrees verification within three month. To conclude the process the ECP was also seeking Supreme Court’s assistance to remove the hurdles being faced by the commission to wind up the degrees’ verification process through its constitutional privileges.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 18th, 2010.
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