The media of Pakistan is abuzz with the issue of fake degree holders from quite some time. We have seen a large number of politicians who have had fake bachelor’s degrees. Some even did not pass their matric or intermediate exams and miraculously passed their bachelor’s. The list of fake degree holders even includes an ex-education minister whose A-level certificate was fake. This depicts an obvious sorry picture of the state of affairs of the country.
Almost 99% of the people of Pakistan condemn these fakers and demand a strict action taken against them. However, the question is, why do we want this stern action? A more suited answer to this questions is that because they are policy makers and run the affairs of the country, and if they would lie under oath and fake their educational documents, how could we expect them to honestly carry out their national duties? Well, this is great, but then why only restrict this process to the politicians? Politicians at maximum rule us for 5 years. On the other hand bureaucracy of the country, both civil and military, rule us for sixty years of their life.
Since the independence of Pakistan, a single force that has consistently been in power is the bureaucracy of the country. A politician is elected for five years, and a bureaucrat is selected for sixty years of his life. Also, in these 65 years since 1947, politicians have got less than half of the time to rule the country. Even the time when they were in power, these bureaucrats were still there and played a key role in shaping the decisions of politicians to their will. Bureaucrats have truly controlled the affairs of the country all along and thus it becomes very important to ensure that no fakers exist in this important cadre.
However, the process of confirming the educational documents of the whole of bureaucracy is indeed a difficult task. They are so many in number and it would obviously take a lot of time and resources to do this task. However, there is an easy and most efficient way to carry out this process. A top down approach should be followed where a grade 22 officer’s educational credentials are checked first before a 21 grade officer. Employing this top down approach ensures that those who matter more are checked first and then the process is continued down the line.
In short, democratic forces come and go, but these bureaucrats remain there. They posses a lot of power and virtually control the country. Hence, if it is important to confirm the educational credentials of the politicians to confirm whether they are honest or not, it is even more important to do the same with all the bureaucrats of the country. Because with bureaucracy, especially those with higher grades, it’s not just a case of faking educational documents and lying under oath. For them, education is a requirement to efficiently execute their duties on daily basis. And, If we could find such a big percentage of fake degree holders among the politicians, it is not unlikely that we are not going to find fakers in the bureaucracy.
