ISLAMABAD – With the deadline set by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani for the verification of educational degrees and certificates of all federal government employees approaching fast, the authorities tasked with the job seemed to be moving at a snail’s pace, with heads of department setting their own deadlines for the completion of the process, documents available with Pakistan Today revealed.
Gilani had ordered the Establishment Division on February 5 to complete the process by April 4, but the division began the verification process on March 8, more than a month after the PM’s orders. The letter asked them to submit to the Establishment Division a certificate along with a list of officers whose degrees had been verified within 45 days, setting April 22 as the new deadline.
In the first step, the degrees of employees of BS-17 to BS-22 (or equivalent) had to be verified from the universities and institutions concerned. Similarly, on orders from the establishment secretary, the Senate Secretariat – in a circular dated March 25 – asked all officers (BS-17 and above) to submit attested copies of their degrees to be verified by March 31, just four days ahead of the deadline set by the PM.
After 53 days, however, the officials are merely corresponding and no real progress on the verification of degrees of tens of thousands of federal government employees working in 39 federal ministries has been made, and it seems unlikely that the deadline set by the PM will be met. The process of verification of educational documents of 1,168 members of the Senate, National and provincial assemblies also remains incomplete.
