Effective system needed to check fake degrees trade

LAHORE: Fake degrees case has tarnished the image of Pakistan while due to non-existence of effective legislation such businesses are flourishing and this is a need of the hour to implement effective political, social and administrative system at national level.
These views were expressed by the experts in Jang Economic Session on ‘Fake degrees - image of Pakistan’, here Monday. The panellists were Dr Rafiq Ahmed, Dr Ehsan Malik, Badar Khushnud, Manzoor Malik, Dr Azhar Saleem and Kulsoom Zehra while hosted by Sikandar Lodhi.
Dr Rafiq Ahmed said that comprehensive steps should be taken to resolve fake degrees issue. He believed that adulteration, corruption and cheating had become a routine in Pakistan due to non-existence of coordination and trust in the institutions. He said everyone found involve in wrong doing should be taken to task and discouraged at every level. He called for awakening the Islamic spirit while reforms are unavoidable to revamp the system. He said Pakistani education system was behind the easily available fake degrees while there was a need to overhaul the education system and uniform education system could resolve number of problems.
Dr Ehsan Malik said weak system, lack of required legislation were the reasons behind the illegal business. He questioned that the investigative institutions were sleeping when fake degree business was continued while no action was taken two years back when a local newspaper published this news.
He believed that fake degree business was at its peak in US, Europe, India and many other countries where these institutions were doing annually billions of dollars business.
Badar Khushnud said in modern era of information technology every type of verification was possible through technology adoption while fake degree could be verified through single SMS. He urged the government for technology adoption and evolving a system through which verification could be made possible through single SMS. He said no IT policy was made after 2005; in US uncountable universities were doing same fake degrees business while no legislation existed there to counter it. He called for impartial inquiry and action against the responsible.
Manzoor Malik said that weak administrative setup was the reason of all illegal business which damaged Pakistan’s image. He said action against the fake degree holders would be helpful to discourage others involved in illegal businesses. He said finding the facts in information and technology era was not difficult.
Dr Azhar Saleem said fake degree was a global issue while UK, Philippines, China, India and many other countries were top of this illicit business. He said more than 3,000 fake online universities were making billions of dollars annually by selling fake degrees. He said the West had set the trend of getting fake degrees due to weak administrative system there.
Kulsoom Zehra said that fake degree case had put question mark on authenticity of all students. She said that the government should solve the case and take action against those found involved without any further delay so that future of students could be protected.