ISLAMABAD: In clear violation of the Supreme Court orders, at least 35 former members of national and provincial assemblies who failed to get their degrees verified from Higher Education Commission (HEC) are running for May 11 elections. According to the list provided by HEC to ECP, a total of 79 former parliamentarians did not get their degrees verified by the commission until the April 5 deadline, set by the Supreme Court. But at least 35 of these 79 are confirmed candidates for the upcoming elections. Interestingly, of these 35 MPs with unverified degrees 15 did not pay a penny as tax during the last three years and two of them do not even have the national tax number. In its historic 1st April order the apex court had urged 189 ex-parliamentarians to get their degrees verified or face disqualification. The court had directed ECP to send the names of parliamentarians who fail to verify their degrees to Returning Officers so that their papers are not approved till the verification of their degrees. “The ECP, in the meanwhile, shall inform the respective Returning Officers, before whom they (parliamentarians with unverified degrees) may have filed the nomination papers, if they are again contesting for the general elections, to give their decision in respect of their educational qualification after receipt of the decision by the HEC.” However, apparently the ECP failed to obey the apex court order and the said candidates managed to get their papers approved by the returning officers. Those who are contesting elections despite having unverified degrees include Pir Dilawar Shah from NA-15, Syed Haider Ali Shah NA-16, Mehboobullah NA-23, Bilal Rehman NA-36, Zafar Baig Bhatani NA-47, Al-Haaj Muhammad Ilyas Chinioti PP-73, Makhdoom Syed Iftikhar Hussain Gillani PP-267, Ch. Nadeem Khadim PP-26, Ch Javed Ahmad Advocate PP-228, Haji Muhammad Yaqub Sheikh PP-77, Karam Dad Wahla PP-219, Makhdoom Muhammad Irtaza PP-291, Makhdoom Syed Ali Raza Shah PP-89, Asif Bashir Baghat, PP-117, Mohammad Amir Ghani PP-203, Shaharyar Ali Khan PP-234, Shahzad Saeed Cheema PP-224, Samina Wasim Butt PP-135, Nawabzada Syed Shamas Haider PP-27, Rana Munawar Hussain PP-36, Sardar Muhammmad Aman Ullah Khan Dreshak PP-249, Khawaja Muhammad Islam PP-72, Dr Nasrullah Baloch PS-1, Amanullah Khan Masood PS-128, Agha Irfan Karim PB-36, Zahoor Ahmad Buledi PB-49, Ateef ur Rehman PK-5, Muhammad Alamgir Khalil PK-6, Sher Afgan Khan PK-26, Mufti Kifayatullah PK-55, Qaser Wali Khan PK-78, Mohammad Zamin Khan PK-96, Dr Zakirullah Khan PK-97 and Waji-uz-Zaman Khan PK-56. Mehboobullah and Bilal Rehman have no NTN according to Federal Board of Revenue while 13 other MPs paid zero tax during the last three years. It is also interesting to note that a number of candidates whose degrees were declared fake/invalid have also been allowed to contest elections including Mir Nadir Magsi, Samina Khawar Hayat etc.
