‘Corrupt’ officials verifying lawmakers’ academic records?

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

* Educationists say powerful lawmakers can influence varsity staff to get their degrees declared ‘authentic’
* People highlight financial, moral corruption in PU

By Adnan Lodhi

LAHORE: The verification of the masters and graduation degrees of parliamentarians has begun but at the same time different sections of society have questioned the process, as the faculty and administration of these varsities are involved in various corruption scandals.

Educational authorities have raised objections that when faculty members can use their influence to stop investigations against them, they could also be easily pressurised by powerful politicians to declare their degrees authentic. They were of the view that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should first analyse whether the universities were transparent enough to verify the degrees or not. Following instructions by the HEC, the verification of degrees of parliamentarians begun this week, but sources of the examinations and secrecy departments doubted that the process would be completed transparently.

They said although some circles were making efforts to discredit the fake degree-holders, but this could not be done until the influence of powerful politicians was stopped. People had suggested that the HEC should include some members of the judiciary in the committees established to verify the degrees. They also suggested that some responsible members of the government should be included in the degree-verifying committees so that the work could be done in a transparent manner.

Secrecy branches experts said if the government wanted a transparent mechanism to verify the degrees of parliamentarians, then it should not rely on the varsity administration solely. The reason behind this suggestion was the order of the HEC to verify the degrees of the faculty members and administration staff of the varsities as well.

In such a situation, when the HEC was doubtful about the authenticity of the degrees of the faculty and administration of the universities, it would not be suitable to give full control to the varsities to check the degrees of powerful lawmakers.

It is pertinent to mention here that a number of faculty members of the Punjab University (PU) have been involved in various corruption scandals and degrees of 313 parliamentarians had been sent to the PU for verification. The faculty and administrative staff of the PU, including deans and department heads, are accused of violating the rules of MPhil and PhD programmes, nepotism, illegal admissions, sexual harassment and violation of the code of conduct. Inquiries against these allegations are currently being held but the accused are using all their sources to halt the proceedings against them.

It is pertinent to mention here that any employee of a university who is familiar with the process of preparing degrees could easily sell fake degrees to anyone and a number of PU staff had been sacked on such allegations as well.

A former PU controller of examinations was notorious for his role in preparing fake degrees when this condition for contesting elections was announced in 2002. Unfortunately, this ‘fishy’ character is still an employee of the varsity. To make matters worse, some powerful lawmakers are in contact with the senior administration of the PU and under these circumstances, it is difficult for the verification process of degrees to be considered authentic. Although PU VC Dr Mujahid Kamran had done his best to ensure the process of verification was authentic, but various PU officials are capable of using their sources to influence the process. Most corrupt officials of the PU support the Islami Jamiat Talba (IJT), which is a large pressure group of the varsity.

A large number of PU students, faculty members and old students have expressed concerns on the rising scandals of corruption and immorality in the varsity and are of the view that such events have increased in the last few years. They said nowadays a tug of war is going on between faculty members to expose financial and moral corruptions by each other. The academic circles are expecting the PU VC to address their concerns immediately regarding the degree verification process and corruption by the pro-IJT staff.