Out of 249 parliamentarians, the degree verification cases of 206 are still pending as Higher Education Commission (HEC) has given clearance to the academic credentials of 43 parliamentarians.

On Wednesday four more members of Parliament turned up to get degree clearance. Member of National Assembly Zahid Hamid and Raja Muhammad Asad Khan of PML-N were among them whose degrees have been declared as genuine.Regarding the media reports that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has declared fake degrees as genuine, a senior official of the HEC maintained that the HEC has no record to cross check whether the degrees have been cleared out of 56 fake degrees that were verified by the HEC in 2010 when the degree verification process was started on the orders of Supreme Court.

He said HEC has only its own record and cannot say anything about the fate of degrees sent to ECP after verification. If the matter is discussed in the special parliamentary committee that is going to meet Thursday (today), the HEC would ask the ECP to produce record to ascertain the facts, he added. According to HEC officials the Commission is the only body that declares a degree as genuine or fake and if it’s true that the fake degrees have been declared genuine it’s is a mater of concern.

However, in a statement the ECP said the cases of Shafiq Ahmed Gujjar , Rubina Irfan, Gull Muhammad Lot, Syed Ameer Ali Shah Jamot, Ghulam Sarwar Sial, Lt. Col. (R) Shujait Ahmed, Mukhesh Kumar, Bashir Ahmed Khan and Samina Khawar Hayat were cleared, later on, as HEC by mistake put the name of MPs in the list of fake degree holders but later declared the degree as genuine.

The cases of parliamentarians Israrullah Khan, Mir Mohabat Khan Mari, Senator from Balochistan, Rehana Yahya Baloch, Wali Muhammad, Nawabzada Muhammad Akbar, Dr. Israr Hussain, Gulistan Khan, Movi Obaidullh, Shumaila Rana, Shabina Khan, Nawabzada Tariq Magsi, Seemal Kamran, Haji Muhammad Omer Gorgaje,

Dewan Syed Ashiq Hussain, Rana Ejaz Ahmad Noon, Petanber Sewani, Wasim Afzal Gondal, Nawabzada Mir Nadir Magsi were closed by the ECP on the grounds of resignations of the parliamentarians or the condition of degree was not application, in few cases the MPs died or due to legal time bar as the time to verify degrees was consumed.