Adil Najam
The Lahore High Court has declared Mudassir Qayyum Nahira, a PML-N member of the national assembly, disqualified because he holds a fake degree. Elected form NA-100 Gujranwalla. The idea that those holding fake degrees should be disqualified – not just for the ‘fakeness’ of their education but also for the sheer act of lying and making a fool of the very people they are supposed to be representing – is a good one.
It is something that we at ATP have written about before and we feel fairly strongly about. I for one welcome the decision by the National Assembly that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) should verify the degrees of all 873 parliamentarians. That should be a normal and continual function of the HEC. I am also glad that this issue has been gaining such momentum.
Having said that – and having established that if Mr. Nahira’s degree is fake then he should be disqualified – the few details of the story that we know (and we really know very few) do seem to suggest that this may be more a case of catching a technicality because an opponent pushed for it rather than a real case of the honorable court being annoyed and incensed at an act of cheating and lying. Even so, it is good that the issue is highlighted. But not enough.
It seems that Mr. Nahira actually has a degree – from the University of Bahawalpur – but he obtained it while he was under suspension from the Punjab University and without obtaining a ‘no objection certificate’ (NOC) from the Punjab University. I do not know why he ha been suspended from the Punjab University (and would really like to know). But I am glad that he did actually complete the education in Bahawalpur. Because education is always a good thing; even when done half-heartedly.
So, I will wait for more details on this case, I applaud the court for going after the issue, but we need to go beyond the technicalities to the even bigger issue remains of those who blatantly lie about being what they are not and buying fake degrees without obtaining any education at all. Indeed, the biggest issue of all is creating a polity where lying to citizens in any dimension is not tolerated.
Failed states: Pak among top 10
Washington: Just three places below Afghanistan,Pakistan has been ranked the 10th most failed state in the 2010 Failed State Index released by the prestigious Foreign Policy magazine on Monday.The list is topped by Somalia,followed by Zimbabwe,Sudan,and Chad.
India is ranked 87 in a list of 177 countries.In Indias immediate neighbourhood,Myanmar has been placed at 13,Sri Lanka (22) and Nepal 25.China is ranked at 57th place.Norway is ranked at the bottom of the list.
Shattered Somalia has been the No 1 failed state for three years running,and none of the current top 10 has shown much improvement,if any,since Foreign Policy and the Fund for Peace began publishing the index in 2005, it said.Altogether,the top 10 slots have rotated among just 15 unhappy countries in the indexs six years.State failure,it seems,is a chronic condition, the magazine said.
The magazine said Somalia saw yet another year plagued by lawlessness and chaos,with pirates plying the coast while radical Islamist militias tightened their grip on the streets of Mogadishu.Afghanistan and Iraq traded places on the index as both states contemplated the exit of US combat troops,while already isolated Sudan saw its dictator,Omar Hassan al-Bashir,defy an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court and the warravaged Democratic Republic of the Congo once again proved itself a country in little more than name,the magazine said.
Very good decision. I fully praise the decision of Lahore High Court about disqualifying him. It is a lesson for other legislators also who befool people by holding such fake degrees.
The graduation condition as a qualifying criteria for participating in election has been suspended.
So in next general elections, we will witness the highly qualified politicians in the assemeblies.
It has been a pleasure to read this article.
-and see that common-man (woman) has a voice.
and I agree to full with Watan Aziz ; please remove the picture
of those students whom deserve their degrees at most.
Share lying and corruption are some cancers along with extremism that need to be whitewashed from Pakistan to make it successful. This act of disqualifying is supported by the nation. We must help our country get rid of these cancers.