Zardari smells a rat in dodgy degree row timing By Syed Irfan Raza Thursday, 01 Jul,

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari went on the offensive on Wednesday over the matter of legislators’ degrees, ruling out their disqualification and accusing “anti-democracy forces” of conspiring against the government.

In a speech loaded with innuendos against his political rivals, Zardari left little doubt that he saw the degree issue as nothing but a smokescreen behind which a plot was being hatched against him.

“I will once again survive attempts to dislodge me from the Presidency and go on to complete my term,” the president said in a speech at a ballot for the Waseela-i-Haq scheme of the Benazir Income Support Programme.

“Sometime back when there was a law on the statute book requiring representatives to produce bachelors’ degree, no one asked questions about academic qualifications of elected members.

“But strangely enough, some people are blowing up the issue out of all proportions now even though the law is no more,” Mr Zardari said.

“People alone have the right to elect their representatives and send them to parliament and provincial assemblies,” he added.

Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for the president, made a feeble attempt to paper over the remarks, saying Mr Zardari had merely urged his detractors not to malign the parliament and democracy.

The issue of academic qualification was first raised by Abid Sher Ali, a leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N and member of the National Assembly Standing Committee on education.

Degrees of some 40 legislators have so far been challenged by their rivals.

The Election Commission, waking up to the gravity of the matter, last week decided to get scrutinised degrees and certificates of all parliamentarians and members of provincial assemblies. It has so far forwarded documents of about 1,100 senators, MNAs and MPAs to the Higher Education Commission for authentication.

Observers now fear that over 100 legislators would stand disqualified for having provided wrong information to the Election Commission about their educational qualifications at the time of submitting their nomination papers.