Many exposed and not just one
As per The News dated 1th June, 2010, Supreme Court of Pakistan dismissed the appeal of PML (N) MPA Rizwan Gill from Sargodha constituency PP-34 who through his lawyer Muhammad Akram Sheikh tried to prove to SC that his Bachelor of Arts degree issued by Punjab University is genuine and not bogus as alleged by Dr. Nadia Aziz of PPP.
It is more shameful than criminal that our so called elective representative of Punjab Assembly is himself proved to be a cheat and fraud though all those who voted for him to be elected as MPA had placed a blind confidence in him believing that he is an honest and caring person to look them after but now it is stamped that he has proved to the contra. As a matter of fact, if not annoying, it must be dug deep to reach to the bottom of the case to unearth and personify all those who are directly or indirectly involved in such forgery and I wonder if the lot can also be questioned and made answerable. From where do we start, bottom or top or both?
First and the foremost persons or person must be those who issued BA degree to him. Undoubtedly some one from within Punjab University, Lahore had been involved in the heinous crime and thus he or she must be taken to task and straight away a criminal case be registered the person concerned. How did Rizwan reach this person is also to be taken into account? May be there was a middle man or a chain of middle men who introduced Rizwan to the university official (s) and if so then the middle man or men is/are equally liable to be facing the music unless and until it is proved that Rizwan had his own direct contact with the concerned PU official (s).
Next come Rizwan family members and friends, at least one of each category if not more, who must have known very well that his BA degree is obtained fraudulently. It is abetting to crime, which in itself is a punishable crime, if some one knowingly and intentionally does not report the crime and instead hides and or keeps mum on it. Had sky split apart if his relative and or friend had reported to police that he has a bogus BA degree? What happens now if all those who stitched their lips on this account for so many years or months, whatever applicable, are now prosecuted against and dragged into a court of law?
PM L (N), which always boasts of being elected by ‘heavy mandate’, simply can not and should not be spared either. How did it issue its ticket to Rizwan Gill to contest Punjab Assembly election from Sargodha IV constituency PP 34? Didn’t it know that he has a fake degree? It is hard to believe that PML (N) is an innocent on this account and it really did not know the hard fact at the time of nominating Rizwan to contest the election from its platform. However, just for academic discussion and not otherwise, if it is accepted that PML (N) really did not know it in the first instance then my question is as to what it did when Dr Nadia Aziz of PPP which lost the election from the same constituency contested it? Was it not obligatory on the part of PML (N) to have not only issued a show cause notice to Rizwan but also cancelled his party membership when such fraud has surfaced? What PML (N) says now to keep up its face?
Why and how Rizwan could even dare to contest his BA degree is really a mind boggling question? Who advised him, other than the devil, not to plainly admit his fraud and instead contest it? What honors, or for that matter, laurels did he earn now when the highest court of Pakistan namely Supreme Court has rejected his appeal and instead convicted him to face criminal charges instead? Didn’t he gloom Muhammad Akram Sheikh, a known Supreme Court lawyer who tried to defend Rizwan in SC? Alas! How many lost their faces in a stretch and that too in just one go is too tragic and lamentable.
__________________________________
With my honest and solemn prayers
Sincere Iqbal Hadi Zaidi / Kuwait / zaidi.former.diplomat.kuwait@hotmail.com