HEC clears degrees of 23 parliamentarians

One more added to fake degree holders’ list, tally of valid degree holders now 568 .

ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has cleared another 23 federal and provincial legislators after verifying their educational certificates, bringing the tally of valid degree holding public representatives to 568.

The academic credentials of Farahnaz Ispahani, the wife of Pakistan’s ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani, and Senator Ammar Ahmed Khan have been verified. Eighteen members of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly have also won certification, along with two Punjab Assembly members and one Sindh Assembly member.

One invalid degree has also been detected. The HEC has declared as invalid the bachelor of arts degree of a Sindh Assembly member, Bashir Ahmed Khan (PS-56). The list of fake/invalid degree holders has grown to 59 with the addition of the new name.

The verification process has hit a snag and its pace has slowed down since over 400 legislators – some leading political figures among them – had not filed their Matriculation and Intermediate certificates.

A controversy has erupted between the HEC and the Election Commission as the election authority recently contested the HEC’s demand for Matriculation and Intermediate certificates of all the members along with their graduation degrees to complete the verification process.

The Election Commission believes that the HEC is overstretching its mandate, which was originally confined to verifying the graduation degree of the members of Senate, federal and provincial assemblies as directed by the Supreme Court.

Besides Farahnaz Isphani, who acquired her bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College, the HEC has also validated the graduation degree of Sindh Assembly member, Fida Hussain and two Punjab assembly members,  Haji Ihsanud Din Qureshi and Nazia Raheel.

The K-P Assembly members whose degrees have been validated are Munawar Farman, Mian Nisar Gul Kaka Khel, Sardar Aurangzeb, Malik Tamash Khan, Yasmin Pir Muhammad Khan, Syed Zahir Ali Shah, Pervaiz Ahmed Khan, Mukhtar Ali, Sarfraz Khan, Iqbal Din, Haji Qalandar Khan Lodhi, Muhammad Shuja Khan, Israr Ullah Khan Gandapur, Haji Hidayatullah Khan, Zarqa, Begum Nargis Samin Jan, Mehr Sultana Advocate and Arbab Mohammad Ayub Jan.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2010.