Degrees attestation by Higher Education Commission (HEC) an uphill task
Disrespectful behaviour of HEC staff
Islamabad, Jan 29: The limited capacity of attestation department of Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the disrespectful behaviour of its staff are a constant source of anxiety for the students who come from different parts of the country to get their degrees attested.
Only two counters for males and females each have been set up and people wait for hours in long queues for their turn. Even there is no separate counter for senior citizens and they are also ill-treated. "Nearly 500 people arrive to attest their degrees daily while the commission only cater 150 people a day. Tokens are issued to the students but there is no use for that as the order is not maintained while making the queues," said Syed Mubashir Nazeer, a student, complaining about the poor service of the staff.
"One of the major problems for students is that only those are entertained who arrive between 0800 to 1100 hours. Those who reach late are not even allowed to enter the premises of the commission no matter how far they have come from and where they would stay at night. Timings are also not mentioned anywhere at the website," he maintained.
The attestation of degrees, transcripts and diplomas awarded by the certified universities and degree awarding institutions of Pakistan, both in public and private sector, was transferred to the HEC by the government in May 2000. The HEC is also the sole regulatory body of higher education in the country entrusted with the job to determine the equivalence and recognition of degrees, diplomas and certificates awarded by institutions within the country and abroad, which is done by the same department.
But the officials of the HEC believe that the centralised system of attestation is necessary to avoid the chances of any fraud and ensure the grant of genuine degrees. The facility of courier service has also been started by the commission for the students. The degrees and transcript can also be attested through courier service and there is no need to come personally to the headquarter of the commission. But people hardly go for that service fearing that their original documents could be lost through this and prefer to do it personally. The Nation
...................
