The chief election commissioner (CEC) decided on Tuesday to send the case of Punjab Assembly Member Seemal Kamran of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) to police to register a first information report (FIR) for contesting the 2008 general elections on the basis of a fake degree and also issued final notices to two other bogus degree holders.
A source in the Election Commission told Pakistan Today that the CEC issued final notices to PML-Q Senator from Balochistan Rehana Yahya Baloch and JUI-F MNA Molvi Raziuddin for providing documents in support of their degrees by September 24; otherwise, cases would be registered against them on the forgery.
The cases of the abovementioned lawmakers were pending for the last eight months. However, the newly-constituted Election Commission during its second meeting had called for expediting the verification of parliamentarians’ educational credentials and discouraging unnecessary delays after which the CEC resumed the hearing on Tuesday. The source said during the course of the hearing, Rehana and Molvi Raziuddin through their representatives requested another chance to prove their degrees as genuine. The CEC served the final notices to them and fixed the matter for September 24.
The CEC had sent 22 cases of fake degree holders to the district police officers (DPOs) in the beginning of current year. However, only 10 FIRs have so far been registered as the DPOs have been dragging their feet in several cases, apparently due to pressure from the provincial governments. Out of total 10 lawmakers against whom FIRs were registered Sardar Ali, an independent member of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, was the only arrested lawmaker but was later released on bail.
