ISLAMABAD, Jan 14: The controversy sparked by the Election Commission over the academic credentials of 298 lawmakers was taken to parliament when Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Wasim Sajjad, submitted on Friday a privilege motion on the issue.

In his motion submitted to the Senate secretariat, Mr Sajjad said it appeared to be an attempt to shield actual fake degree-holders by confusing the issue, denigrate respectable politicians and damage the political process.

The EC has expressed doubts over the eligibility of 298 lawmakers who have failed to submit documents required for verification of their graduation degrees despite repeated reminders.

Wasim Sajjad, Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, PML-N leaders Ishaq Dar and Javed Hashmi, federal ministers Babar Awan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Manzoor Wattoo, Arbab Alamgir Khan, Samina Khalid Ghurki, Arbab Zahir Khan, Rana Farooq Saeed and Shahbaz Bhatti, Senators Afrasiab Khatak, Talha Mehmood, Gul Naseeb Khan and Abdul Rahim Mandokhel, former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and former federal ministers Neelofar Bakhtiar, Faisal Saleh Hayat, Abdul Qayyum Jatoi and Zahid Hamid are prominent figures on the list of such people.

Chaudhry Nisar has decided to serve a legal notice on the Election Commission for expressing doubts over his degree. He termed it a drama staged to protect lawmakers who had fake degrees.

A number of other legislators said they had never been asked by EC or the Higher Education Commission to provide documents. They criticised the commission for releasing the list containing their names.

Wasim Sajjad told Dawn that he had submitted certified copies of his degrees which were required at the time of filing nomination papers. “No objection was raised by any quarter and I have received no demand from any authority, including the EC and HEC, for further documents.”

He said that inclusion of his name in the list was an attempt to defame him which amounted to breach of his privilege as member of the Senate.

Mr Sajjad said he did his B.A. from the Government College, Lahore, in 1961, LLB in 1963 and M.A. (Political Science) from the Punjab University in 1964. Minorities Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti said he had never been asked by the EC or the HEC to produce documents for verification. He said he could provide every document to both the commissions.

Senator Talha Mehmood also expressed almost the same views while talking to Dawn before leaving for China. EC CLARIFIES:

An EC spokesman, Mohammad Afzal Khan, said the commission had not declared doubtful the degrees of any lawmaker. He said the HEC had provided to the commission in October a list of over 400 legislators, copies of whose Matric and FA certificates and CNIC were required for verification of their graduation degrees.

He said the EC, while acting as a facilitator, had written to the secretariats of Senate and national and provincial assemblies asking them to persuade the legislators to provide required documents to the HEC.

An HEC official told Dawn that doubts about academic credentials had been created by the lawmakers themselves as they had failed to submit documents despite repeated reminders.

“It is natural to believe they have something to hide if they don't provide the documents for verification,” he added.