Pak Election Commission doubtful about degrees of 298 lawmakers

ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Election Commission is reportedly unhappy over the eligibility of 298 lawmakers who despite being reminded repeatedly, have failed to submit their graduation degrees.

According to the Dawn, 21 such members exist in the upper house and they include Law Minister Babar Awan, PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Leader of Opposition in the Senate Wasim Sajjad, PML-N leader Ishaq Dar, former minister Neelofar Bakhtiar, Afrasiab Khatak, Talha Mehmood and Gul Naseeb Khan and Abdul Rahim Mandokhel.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, Minister for Kashmir Affairs Manzoor Wattoo, Minister for Communications Arbab Alamgir Khan, Minister for Social Welfare Samina Khalid Ghurki, Minister for Narcotics Control Arbab Zahir Khan, Minister for Textiles Rana Farooq Saeed, are among 112 members of the National Assembly.

Prominent opposition MNA politicians include leader of opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, PML-N leaders Javed Hashmi and Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan, former federal ministers Faisal Saleh Hayat, Abdul Qayyum Jatoi and Zahid Hamid and former parliamentary secretary for information Azeem Daultana.ther MNAs on the list are Kashmala Tariq, Humayun Saifullah Khan, Raza Hayat Hiraj, Dr Attiya Inayatullah, Begum Shahnaz Shaikh, Bushra Rahman, Asma Arbab Alamgir, Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain, Justice (retd) Iftikhar Ahmad Cheema, Engineer Amir Muqam, Munir Khan Orakzai, Mehreen Razzaq Bhutto and Lt General (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch.

The Punjab Assembly has 102 such members, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly 43 and the Sindh and Balochistan assemblies 10 each.

The Election Commission has written letters to the Senate chairman and speakers of the National and provincial assemblies urging them to persuade the legislators to provide the documents to the Higher Education Commission. (ANI)