Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was recently given an honourary PhD degree by his alma mater, the Government College University, Lahore. Some of the newspapers have even started writing him as Dr Nawaz Sharif. It has become a tradition, and bad one at that, to confer doctorates on any one in a position of authority. Even Rehman Malik had one such degree when he was the interior minister in the last government. Will any university confer on him any such degree now when he is Mr Nobody? Associated Press Style Book, which is universally followed by writers and editors, stipulates rules for all such titles. It disallows anyone with an honourary doctorate to be called, written, or addressed as Dr so and so. When I read how the universities in my country are awarding honourary doctorates at the wholesale, I begin to wonder if I should call myself a doctor. I remember the last honourary doctor in the west who was always called a doctor until James Bond did him in was Dr No.
DR A P SANGDIL
Oslo, Norway
