HEC got extraordinary prominence due to scrutiny in Legislators degrees who are not in the habit to be scrutinized but wish to subject others to scrutiny

        Section 3 of the HEC Ordinance 2002, says “The Controlling Authority of the Commission shall be the Prime Minister or, as the case may be, the Chief Executive of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan who may supervise the affairs of the Commission".

          Sub-section (2) of Section 5 says, “The Chairperson appointed under sub-section (1) shall have the status of Federal Minister".

          Clause (o) of sub-section (1) of Section 10 says, “Determine the equivalence and recognition of degrees, diplomas and certificates awarded by Institutions within the country and abroad”.

      I found nowhere in the Ordinance that the HEC shall function under the supervision of the Federal Education Minster or in consultation with Ministry of Education. Sardar Asif Ahmad Ali is a senior politician and should quote the relevant law when he speaks about the institutions because everything is not a political game. So far the HEC was working as the other Institutions are working but it got special attention because it is now dealing with the degrees of not ordinary persons but the legislators of the Country. Sardar Asif and such like him are not in the habit to be scrutinized because they are born to make scrutiny of others. When the time came for their scrutiny, they began to challenge even the usual powers of the Institutions.

          The intelligentsia of this Country is viewing this trend of politicians with enough curiosity. The legislators make rules and regulations for taming others while some of them consider themselves above any scrutiny. They prescribe qualifications for others below them but keep themselves away from any restriction.

          The politicians at this stage hate President Musharraf with enhanced intensity because he tried to put restriction on their entry to the Assemblies and linked it with B.A. Degrees in their hands. Those who were over ambitious/insatiable to get entry to the Assemblies but were not in possession of genuine degrees of the Universities got fake degrees and deceived both the relevant State Institutions and the People of the Country who allowed them to get entry in the Assemblies.

          Now at a first stage, the HEC is responsible for the scrutiny of the degrees because the HEC Ordinance, 2002 has given the job of dealing with degrees to HEC. Once the degrees are checked and fake degree holders are determined, then it is easier to put them for proper trial because they cannot deny the degrees which they had submitted to the Returning Officers. The existence of the copies of the degrees in the offices of the Returning Officers is the confession of the fake degree holders and in my opinion needs no further investigation/inquiry by the Courts. In my opinion, the HEC report is the first and final proof/evidence needed for the conviction of the fraudsters.

          The number of fake degree holders increases with every passing day. Till this time, the number has reached to 46, which is enough shameful for the Country. The issue is a serious one but the politicians have taken it lightly because it is a hard hit on their prestige to admit it plainly.

          The fake degrees issue has got augmented significance after the 18^th Amendment in the Constitution in which the politicians have prescribed certain procedures for the appointments of persons. It is astonishing that the legislators changed the procedure for the appointment of Judges but did not prescribed that what should be the qualification of a Member of the Assembly, Minister, Prime Minister, President etc.

          Previously, the most learned of the society were the leaders who had the guts to unite the past knowledge/events with present for evolving a system for the future. The distortion in the political system began when the element of ‘no criterion' intruded and conveyed the situation to the present stage. At present, when a person possesses a certain amount of money to afford the expenditure of the election, comes out and participate in the game, if wins the election is guaranteed to be richer otherwise the game is considered a gamble and in gamble winning and losing are parts of the game.

          When some analysts say that the society is in the transformation stage, I say that the apprehensive aspect is that it is transforming at the cost of precious and important human lives. It is not a transformation but is clash of different segments of the society either for having supremacy over others or for their survival. The party in the Government declares it against the State while others declare it indispensable to have arms in the hand. The use of arms instead of dialogue has polluted the situation.

Manzoor Ahmad Yousafzai

Dated: Sunday, July 25, 2010

HEC, Education Ministry at loggerheads

By: Asma Ghani | Published: July 23, 2010

ISLAMABAD – The heads of Higher Education Commission and the Education Ministry are at loggerheads, as the process of degrees' verification of the Parliamentarians has further deepened with their statements against each other.
The Federal Minister for Education Sardar Aseff Ahmad Ali said that the report on the MPs’ degrees could be reviewed again, as it was not the Higher Education Commission's domain to verify the degrees. He added that the report would be sent to the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Education after consultations with the Law Ministry. He was speaking to media persons at a seminar on education sector budget on Thursday. The Minister said a committee could be formed to review the report prepared by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) on the MPs’ degrees.
He said before scrutiny of the degrees of the MPs the Education Ministry should have been consulted and by ignoring the Ministry in this regard the HEC Chairman, Dr Javaid Leghari, has violated the rules of business of the Parliament.
He said though the Commission is an autonomous body, the competent authority is the Ministry, as it is answerable to the Parliament in all the matters not the HEC. He said they are not against the verification processes of the lawmakers’ degrees but it would be done according to the verdict of the Supreme Court.
He said Abid Sher Ali doesn’t have mandate of the Committee to start the verification process and if he wants to become a hero then he should quit the Committee chairmanship and join the media. He was of the view that the Parliament could not intervene in the matters of the executive and Abid Sher Ali could not dictate the Government-run institutions.