Higher Education Commission degrees verification

Higher Education Commission degrees verification


Islamabad, July 14: After weeks-long scrutiny, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) announced on Tuesday that at least 29 of the 511 lawmakers whose record had been checked so far had lied about their academic qualifications.

However, the HEC did not name the legislators whose educational documents were found to be fake or forged. The commission said it wanted to be doubly sure before releasing the names of any wrongdoers.

The National Assembly's Standing Committee on Education, headed by Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali of Pakistan Muslim League-N, had tasked the commission with verifying the educational qualifications of 1,170 members of the Senate and National and provincial assemblies, copies of whose educational testimonials were subsequently sent to it for verification.

Some 936 of these copies were found to be legible, whose scrutiny was undertaken by the commission. (The lawmakers whose degree copies were not legible have since been asked to submit legible copies.)

"So far the commission has received verification reports on the degrees of 511 lawmakers, belonging to 29 universities. Of this number, academic certificates of 29 lawmakers have turned out to be false," the commission's adviser on quality assurance and learning innovation, Dr Syed Mahmood Raza, said on Tuesday, the day by which the verification process was supposed to be completed.

Dr Raza, who heads the three-member committee supervising the scrutiny work, said in all 36 degree-awarding institutions were involved in the process. "We hope the seven institutions that are yet to send us reports will do so soon," he added.

"By the 16th of July the HEC will have the outcome of the entire exercise. After that a formal announcement will be made."

Dr Raza said that among the major institutions that were yet to submit their reports were University of Punjab, University of Balochistan, Allama Iqbal Open University, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai University and University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar.

When repeatedly asked about the names of the 29 legislators who had lied about their educational qualifications, Dr Raza said the issue was a sensitive one and extra care was being taken before releasing the names of legislators who had indulged in wrongdoing.

He said the scrutiny work was being carried out for a second time for all lawmakers.

Dr Raza denied that the HEC was under pressure from the government over the matter.