MPs warned to appear before ECP committee

MPs may ‘face one-sided disciplinary action’, officials say.

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has warned parliamentarians who allegedly submitted invalid degrees to appear before its special committee or ‘face one-sided disciplinary action’, the officials said on Sunday.

“The committee may initiate one-sided proceedings against holders of fake degree for quick conclusion of cases,” an ECP official said.

Head of the committee Afzal Khan has summoned some 24 lawmakers to appear before the committee on Monday. “A three-member committee will conduct hearings,” a senior official of the ECP said. “The commission is believed to go ahead against holders of bogus degree in the light of the maxim: ‘justice delayed is justice denied’,” he added.

HEC’s focal person and a member of the committee Dr Rahim Bux Channa said that a total of 582 academic certificates submitted by legislators are genuine. The HEC found 64 degrees of parliamentarians to be invalid out of a total 1,095, he added. As many as 18 cases of parliamentarians, whose degrees were challenged by their rivals, are in the courts and some 34 degrees are yet to be received by HEC from various universities.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2010.