She stings herself twice at her sweet will

The caption may be very much appealing or not appealing depending upon as to who reads it but nevertheless it was so much striking for me at least that I simply could not resist and had to pick up pen to pen my candid comments on the same. 

Tribune newspaper daily in its issue of Thursday 25^th July, 2013 flashes the news saying, ‘Fake degree: SC declares PML (Q) MPA ineligible’ which is not simple news to be honest and hence it ought not to be taken as casually as one may construe unless we wish to be labeled belong to a low category nation if I am not blunt. Surprisingly none had commented on the news till I copied and pasted though very often many both male and female from within Pakistan and overseas like me have been posting their comments on different news either in favor or against but here their silence could not be understood.

The news is that Punjab Assembly member Samina Khawar Hayat belonging to Pakistan Muslim League (Q) has been dethroned by Supreme Court of Pakistan for the very simple reason that she has two and not just one fake degrees. Chief Justice of Pakistan Chaudhry Mian Iftikhar presiding over a divisional bench of SC had heard the case about the respected legislative member of provincial assembly which in 2008 had submitted not one but two degrees from different universities but, as the bad luck had it, both the degrees are none but fake. In old golden days of President General Pervez Musharraf, for the very 1^st time in history of Pakistan, it was made mandatory that none but a bachelor degree holder of any discipline could only be eligible to be a member of any assembly irrespective of the fact whether it was national or provincial. Official procedure was that each and every applicant aspiring to be elevated as member provincial assembly (MPA) or member national assembly (MNA) had to declare on oath that the educational certificates being submitted by him or her were genuine and not bogus. Election Commission (EC) was obliged to submit all the educational certificates to Higher Education Commission (HEC) for their verification and genuineness.

The honorable MPA had submitted Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree issued by Ripah International University, Islamabad to EC which quite naturally had to forward the same to HEC for necessary verification which in turn had sent the degree to Ripah to certify if it is genuine and issued by them. The university checked all the records but did not find any trace if MPA had ever passed the examination and issued Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree so university’s negative reply proved that MPA had willfully and intentionally submitted fake bachelor degree to be eligible to submit her candidature as MPA and in the absence of any bachelor degree she was out rightly rejected even to apply for what to talk of becoming MPA.

Knowing that her Ripah degree had been found to be fake one, she had the courage and guts to approach through her lawyer to submit another BBA degree issued not by Ripah but by Preston Institute for Management Sciences and Technology (PIMST) Karachi so that she continues to be MPA but this degree too has been declared fake for the very simple reason that PIMST official records are silent on the said degree. She should have very openly shown her moral courage to admit that Ripah degree was bogus and should not have taken another chance through PMIST to prove that she is a degree holder but she did not bother to be on the right path and instead preferred to continue on the wrong side.   

It is proved beyond any shadow of doubt that in Pakistan Samina is not the only one rather many others too have been found to be possessing bogus degrees issued by different universities and our different courts have disqualified them on this account but still the trend of obtaining fake degrees is not stopped till today. She should be asked to immediately pay back all that she has earned as salary and perks during the period she had been MPA for the very simple reason that in the very 1^st instance she was not eligible to be MPA hence the question of any payment on any account does not even arise at all. The call of the time is that once some MNA or MPA is disqualified on account of bogus degree then he or she should be punished heavily both in terms of imprisonment behind the bars duly punctuated with payment of heavy monetary fines as well to deter others otherwise we will breed and produce more and more fake degree holders.

Isn’t it more shameful than criminal on the part of my beloved nation of Pakistan to own such like legislative members who are assigned the most sacred and respectable task of making laws for the country? Will you still continue garlanding Samina and likeminded others sailing in the same boat? Is it a qualification to own bogus degrees? Does the bogus degree holder earn laurels on such account? When will we wake up?

Who condemns me, I dare ask?

Iqbal Hadi Zaidi / Kuwait /