SPOTLIGHT: Sabotaging the process by procrastination and arm-twisting is the name of the game! Fake degree culprits are 'Mujahids'?

I opened the newspaper at mid-week last week to find in print no less than 13 items of all kinds pertaining to the disgraceful issue of fake degrees, just that day. One would have thought it was a black and white issue: people who had lied and cheated their way into what they think are positions of "privilege and power" deserve to be thrown out in disgrace from what actually are positions of responsibility and service.
But no! There is deafening hue and cry, torrent of excuses, hollow pretexts, manoeuvres and intrigues to befuddle the issue. Just imagine, to quote one example, a very senior journalist, eulogising the fake degree cheats as Mujahideen, during a TV debate last mid-week! I could not believe my ears! How come?
His "logic" ran like this: President Musharraf's order, making it mandatory for candidates for elective public office to be at least graduates was illegal, so any one breaking that law was actually fighting against injustice and was, therefore, a Mujahid! Have we eschewed all values, lost all shame, all sense of decent upright behaviour, were my first thoughts! Fortunately, another member in the discussion panel came back with a resounding rejoinder, which ran somwhat like this: "Okay let me accept that they (the Fakies) were fighting against an unjust decree and, therefore, were waging a Jihad. I would have also agreed to call them Mujahideen, had they carried on with their "Jihad" to fight against the unjust order once they were elected. Instead they were content all those long years with polishing the boots of the dictator against whose unjust order they were striving in Jihad (according to the first panellist)"! Bravo, I cried though I don't like the use of strong expressions like that, but in this case, I could not help thinking; it was just what the doctor ordered!
HEC chairman in the cross hairs!
One of the currently hottest hot seats in the country appears to be the on which Professor Javed Leghari, Chairman, Higher Education Commission (HEC), sits today. He is presently preoccupied with the important and sensitive task of determining which academic degrees produced by our honourable MNAs and MPAs as a prerequisite for the election they fought in 2008, are genuine and which are false.
It will be recalled that a recent Supreme Court judgement has bound the Eletion Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to forward the cases of counterfeit degree holders and those possessing suspicious certificates to the district and sessions judges for prosecution, which carries a three-year imprisonment sentence.
The HEC has to get the authenticity of these degrees verified by referring them to various universities in Pakistan and abroad, according to a set procedure. Suddenly, as the HEC took up the task in earnest, all hell appears to have broken loose!
A substantial number of degrees submitted at the time by those currently working as important government functionaries or doing their stint as members of Parliament (cutting across party lines) are suspect. As for PML-N, it has put a brave face on the matter and supports the authentification process, which was set in motion in the first place by PML-N MNA Abid Sher Ali in his capacity as the Chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Education, notwithstanding the fact that so far more PML-N memebers have been known to have submitted fake degrees than members from other parties including the PPP.
However, it is the PPP government, which appears to have panicked. It is alleged to have resorted to arm-twisting actions of all kinds against those involved in the evaluation process and wanting to make an honest job of it. Professor Javaid Laghari got a taste of this with the arrest of his brother Farooq Laghari, on corruption charges allegedly committed while he was DCO at two districts in Sindh, some of the charges being at least two-year old.
Professor Javaid Laghari is reported to have remarked that he is fully "resolved to perform his duty of degrees verification of parliamentarians without any fear or favour and says he does not feel threatened as he has full faith in God," adding that because of his complete faith in God, he could not be browbeaten by anyone and was, therefore, determined to honestly and sincerely perform his functions as the Chairman of the HEC.
Who is Professor Javaid Laghari?
Now who is Professor Javaid Laghari and why did he have to say that? We learn from the Internet that he was a PPP Senator (a BB nominee) from 2006 to 2009 when he resigned on "personal" grounds, but reportedly on being asked to make way for Shaukat Tarin, who was inducted as the PPP federal finance minister. He also did a distinguished stint as President of SZABIST.
Prior to joining SZABIST, Dr Laghari was the Director of Graduate Studies and Tenured Full Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, USA. Dr Laghari is the recipient of the coveted national award "Tamgha-e-Imtiaz", conferred by the President of Pakistan. Dr Laghari is listed in the American Men and Women of Science, Who's Who in Science and Engineering, Who's Who in the East and Who's Who in the World. All this and much more that is complimentary, is what Internet tells us about the man. This provides an essential backdrop to the following. Is Javaid Laghari going to be dumped by the PPP government as several other competent and honest men before him?
As the occasion for his outburst, his brother Farooq Laghari, former DCO while waiting for his next assignment, was arrested on charges of corruption - some committed as long as two years ago. A coincidence? The arrest was done allegedly in a most irregular way without the knowledge and approval of the Chief Secretary (which is mandatory in such cases).
Moreover, Farooq was now charged with corruption, allegedly committed during his stint as the Tando Muhammad Khan DCO, the position he left some two years back. How come he was posted nevertheless as DCO Tando Allahyar after that, it is being asked? Also, according to the HEC Chairman, only a week back, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah had assured him that his brother would be soon appointed as the Director General of the Hyderabad Development Authority. What happened?
It was reported on 14 July 2010 that three senior officials of the Higher Education Commission, Member, Operation Dr Mukhtar; Director, Media Ayesha Akram; and HEC spokesman Muhammad Raza have reportedly, suddenly gone on leave.Yet another coincidence or cases of conscientious functionaries leaving their posts to avoid being forced to work against their conscience? We can only guess.
Cases dusted up (fabricated?) lined up
On Thursday, 15 July after the acceptance of Farooq Leghari's bail, his elder brother Tariq Leghari approached the court with documents relating to the bail. But he was told that Farooq Leghari would not be released as there was another corruption case against him. It is reported that there are so many corruption charges lined up that Farooq would be arrested again on another charge as soon as one bail application is granted.
In yet another instance of continued arm-twisting of a most crude sort, I quote excerpts verbatim from a report published on 17 July 2000: A large contingent of Sindh Police raided HEC Chairman Javed Leghari's home and broke its doors in Goth Bakhshoo Leghari on Friday (16 July). The police also raided his servants' homes, arrested eight of them, and shifted them to an unknown place. Tariq Leghari, a brother of the HEC Chairman, when contacted confirmed the report. However, the Tando Jam police showed their ignorance about the incident.
It was reported on 17 July 2010 that HEC Chairman Javaid Laghari has sought a meeting with Prime Minister Gilani. He is reported to be wanting to talk about presssures on himself and his family to make him do less than an honest job in his current assignment, which, might have the potential to affect PPP position in Sindh in a decisive way.
Abid Sher Ali, callling from London, has said he believed that if the verification of degrees by the Sindh University was done on merit, it may result into disqualification of dozens of members of the Sindh Assembly. TV media has quoted the PM as saying that he was ready to meet the HEC Chairman. A meeting has been scheduled, we learn. Will Dr Javaid Laghary be carrying a resignation letter in his pocket?
Is Sindh University protecting fake degree-holders?
It is reported that the Sindh University, under the influence of the Sindh government, is delaying the job of verification of degrees, referred to it by the HEC, and has asked for two months' time for verification and its attitude is allegedly "non-co-operative and indifferent" (unlike other universities which are doing a more prompt and more thorough job of verification).
As of mid July 2010, not a single degree had been found to be false by the Sindh University unlike the Punjab University, for example, which has come up with several fake degrees while clearing a sizable number of degrees as genuine and is committed to complete the task by the end July. The HEC has reportedly rejected Sindh University's authentification of over 100 degrees due to deficiencies in the process.
Why is Sindh University allegedly dragging its feet in the matter? It is said that some of the leading lights in the Sindh government and PPP may be exposed if the job of verivication is carried out honestly. According to a report, for example, women activists of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) staged a rally at the Karachi Press Club on Friday to condemn the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for "creating doubts" about the educational qualification of PPP women wing's chief Faryal Talpur.
Sharmila Farooqi, Sindh Information Secretary of the PPP women's wing, adressing the rally thought fit to claim that "questioning the veracity of the degree of Faryal Talpur was a conspiracy, aimed at maligning President Asif Ali Zardari", adding for good measure that "the degree issue was aimed at creating a negative image of parliamentarians".
She went to the extent of alleging in addition that the "HEC was playing in the hands of some anti-democratic forces that had been out to derail the system!" Why not wait, we say, and let the name of Talpur and other Sindh government functionaries and members of Parliament and all others be cleared more convincingly by a thorough probe in the matter?
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