Author Topic: HEC yet to verify degrees of 25,000 university staffers  (Read 4211 times)

Offline AKBAR

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HEC yet to verify degrees of 25,000 university staffers
« on: November 27, 2010, 02:27:30 PM »
HEC yet to verify degrees of 25,000 university staffers
Islamabad: Ignoring its own decision taken some months back, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has made no arrangements to verify educational degrees of approximately 25,000 faculty and staff members of 132 public and private sector universities, sources said here on Friday.

Sources said delay in verification of degrees of university staff members might have any link with strong resistance from the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Associations (FAPUASA) that clearly stated that no one would submit degrees for attestation to the HEC until it accepted the genuine demands of university teachers across Pakistan.

The official data showed that HEC executive director Dr. Sohail Naqvi wrote a letter in June this year to all vice chancellors of HEC-recognised universities and directed them to ask their respective faculty members, administrative staff members and contractual employees on equivalent positions to BPS-17 and above to submit their original terminal qualification degrees for attestation.

Sources said that it was decided that degrees of staffers of universities would be verified in different phases to avoid any kind of hurdle in the process of verification of degrees of the lawmakers.

An HEC official said that the decision was taken to ensure that there was no fake degree holder in any of the university because they received complaints time and again about fake degrees allegedly held by university staff members.

The official said permanent faculty members were not expected to use fake degrees, as they could not risk their years in service, but it was usually seen that contractual employees who sometimes secured different slots on the basis of political affiliation presented fake degrees and documents.

FAPUASA President Professor Dr. Mehr Saeed Akhtar said that there was no need for verification of degrees of faculty members of universities because their degrees were verified at the time of appointment.

"When a person is appointed, his or her degrees are verified because no one inducts anyone without verifying that degrees of the candidate are genuine or fake. It is also a fact that no one can take a risk of his service by securing a post on the basis of a fake degree," he said.

It is pertinent to mention here that there was a time when Pakistan produced a single PhD holder in 1947 and now in 2009 the universities produced 740 PhD scholars in various disciplines. A total of 6,551 students have so far completed PhDs in Pakistan. The Punjab University has the honour that it has produced 25 PhD scholars before independence of Pakistan from 1930 to 1946.

HEC Executive Director Dr. Sohail Naqvi said that there is no question of ignoring the decision about verification of degrees of university staff members, but it might take some time, as they have many other things to do at the earliest.

"At the moment we are doing many important things and verification of degrees of the university staffers is on our agenda and we will carry out this at an appropriate time. We are fully committed to ensuring that there is no fake degree holder in any of the university as we want to promote a true educational culture in the country," he said.