ISLAMABAD: Amid heightened row between the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the Higher Education Commission (HEC), the latter on Friday nominated a focal person for liaison with the former’s nominated person on the fake degrees issue of elected representatives.

The ECP issued a statement complaining that their nominated focal person, Afzal Khan, had been trying to find out a person in the HEC with whom he could keep in regular touch on the issue of verification of educational certificates of public representatives, but the HEC has been giving a cold shoulder to his repeated attempts.

The ECP said they had written to the HEC twice, and their focal person first tried to meet the HEC chairman but because he could not, he met two senior officials of the HEC and handed them over a copy of the letter asking them to nominate a focal person.

“Muhammad Afzal Khan tried to call on the chairman of the HEC but due to his busy schedule, he advised the ECP officer to see Dr Mehmood Raza, HEC quality assurance adviser, and Rahim Bux Channa, HEC director general (A&A). Accordingly, a meeting took place between them in which Afzal Khan once again handed over a copy of the said letter to them and asked for an early nomination of the focal person so that further action could be taken for implementation of the Supreme Court order,” the HEC said in a statement.

“Another letter has also been written today by the nominated officer of the Election Commission to the HEC chairman once again requesting for an early nomination of the focal person. As soon as the above focal person is nominated by the HEC, further action will be initiated to implement the Supreme Court order,” it added.

The HEC on the other hand questioned the competence of the ECP whose focal person handed over a letter bearing no signature of the competent authorities.

The HEC officials told Daily Times that as soon as they received a duly signed letter, they nominated Dr Rahim Bux Channa director general (Attestation) for liaison.

The HEC officials, requesting not to be named, expressed their dismay over the ECP’s action of issuing a public statement on the issue saying that instead of admitting their own flaw they were criticising the HEC.

The HEC officials also complained that that they were still waiting for the reports from universities on verification of educational certificates of public representatives. They said degrees of 225 parliamentarians and members of provincial assemblies had been declared valid, while 47 had been held fake so far.

The ECP said its statement given on Friday was in line with the decision taken on July 23, under which they had decided to keep the general public and all others concerned informed about progress on the fake degrees issue on a weekly basis.Daily times