ISLAMABAD: Higher Education Commission (HEC) gave another extension to universities allowing them to verify degrees of parliamentarians till September 24.Talking to APP, focal person of HEC Rahim Bux Channa said, “HEC has asked the universities to verify the degrees of parliamentarians till September 24.”

Earlier, the universities were given deadline of August 25 but they could not verify the degrees due to unavailability of the required academic credentials of lawmakers. Channa said the parliamentarians were busy in flood relief activities in their constituencies and were unable to provide documents and demanded extension in the deadline.

However he said, “there will be no more extension in the date after the deadline and HEC will hand over the list of degrees to the ECP for further action.” Around 390 degrees have been verified as genuine and 50 as fake, he said adding about 15 cases are pending with courts. Rahim Bux Channa said 600 more degrees are in the process of verification. app