ISLAMABAD: Adding to the confusion about who is in charge of the process of verification of parliamentarians’ academic degrees, the education ministry has jumped into the fray on the orders of the prime minister.

The ministry plans to include in the process the law ministry headed by Babar Awan whose critical views of the degree verification issue are no secret.

The ministry claims it has been asked to intervene because the Higher Education Commission (HEC) is not following prescribed rules.

“The other day (July 19) during a meeting at the prime minister’s secretariat where HEC Chairman Dr Javed Leghari was present, I conveyed the same thing to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani that the HEC is not following rules whereby the commission was supposed to take us on board but it didn’t,” Education Minister Sardar Aseff Ahmad Ali said.

Talking to this correspondent in his office, the minister said he had written to the HEC on the matter, but received no response. Therefore, on the instructions of the prime minister, every development relating to verification of legislators’ academic qualification would now be handled by his ministry, he added.

When asked about a similar claim made by Election Commission’s officials, the minister said he would go through the detailed judgment of the Supreme Court on the issue and would see how the education ministry should act in coming days.

The government’s only contention is that being the ministry concerned, the HEC has to act through it which it didn’t. Therefore, the prime minister has directed the education ministry to oversee the issue of degrees.

“Being education minister I am responsible for HEC’s all acts of omission and commission both in the National Assembly and the Senate. Therefore, I need to be on board,” he added.

“Don’t you think it’s an attempt to further delay the verification process and save the skin of elected representatives who had lied about their qualification?” he was asked.

The minister replied: “Since there is a ruling of the apex court in place, nobody can halt the process. No word more, no word less, we will implement the decision.”

However, he clarified that after receiving the report from the HEC the education ministry would conduct its own scrutiny and if needed it would definitely engage the law ministry.

“Just like the HEC processes charter for new universities through the education ministry which we forward to the law ministry for vetting, I believe the education ministry will definitely need the law ministry’s help before taking any decision on HEC’s report on degrees of lawmakers,” the minister said.

He said ‘if demanded’ he would share the information with the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Education.

Sardar Aseff said his personal view was that like the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), the condition of graduation for legislators was also a bad law which should be declared void ab initio (illegal from the beginning).

The law was brought in by a military dictator to keep a whole range of seasoned politicians like the late Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, Nawab Akbar Bugti, Mustafa Jatoi and Ajmal Khatak out of politics, he said. The law has got all the bad intents. How can one disenfranchise millions of people of the country? “To me it is a selective witchhunt going on,” the minister added.

When contacted, HEC officials confirmed they had been directed by the prime minister to do all their future correspondence regarding the checking of degrees with the education minister.

Officially, the HEC is yet to receive a directive from the Election Commission which, under the Supreme Court ruling, should be handling the issue.Election Commission Secretary Ishtiaq Ahmad Khan has said on record that under the Supreme Court’s detailed judgment issued on June 24 the processing of HEC’s report was EC’s domain.

So far the HEC has declared the degrees of 37 lawmakers as forged.

Rana Afzaal Hussain of the PML-N, who is an active member of National Assembly’s committee on education which had initiated the checking of lawmakers’ degrees, said the latest move by the government to involve the education ministry smacked of bad intentions.

“Let the house committee meet next time, we will see under what rules the HEC has refused to provided its report to the committee. Whether the government accepts it or not, it’s clear cut delaying tactics,” the legislator said.

Courtesy by dawn.com