Cyril Almeida, Ayaz Amir, Legally Speaking...

Cyril Almeida Fact is, he may have been elected by all the provincial and federal assemblies, he may be the leader of the largest political party in the country, he may even get the occasional policy right in the big picture, but, in the eyes of his detractors and enemies, he is unworthy — a blight on the nation, a historic aberration.

Ayaz Amir: My friend Dr Babar Awan -- as a colleague in Parliament he is a friend -- holds a doctorate from Montecello University, a university whose existence even the keenest geographers have had a hard time discovering. Still the doctor insists his doctorate -- no doubt in higher jurisprudence -- is genuine. It has now been revealed in a deposition before the Supreme Court by the principal defendant in the Haris Steel Mills case that Dr Babar Awan received four crore rupees, from any angle not a piddling sum, half in legal fees and half on the assurance that the Dogar Supreme Court -- alas, no more -- would deliver a favourable verdict. Instead of denying the allegation, or explaining it in some other way, as lesser morals might have done, Dr Babar Awan says this is all a Qadiani conspiracy against him because he is such a champion of the Khatam-e-Nabuwat movement.

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Legally Speaking: After his induction in Gilani’s cabinet, Awan first hit a controversy when The News published a story about his fake doctorate (Ph.D) degree that was wrongfully awarded by a United States University, which was never accredited for such degree programme and closed down in the year 2000 for being a fraud. Both the United States Educational Foundation (USEF) as well as Higher Education Commissioner of Pakistan had confirmed that the said University was never allowed to offer degree programmes including the Ph.D. “It was a fraud,” the USEF Pakistan had said.