ISLAMABAD To expedite the process of degree verification, which has been further slowed down due to floods, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has once again asked the universities to directly approach the members of the Parliament to get the past record of their educational qualifications. The universities have been asked to contact the MPs directly to get their certificates of matriculation and intermediate if the universities do not possess them. And in this regard HEC has written letters to the universities giving them a period of two weeks to complete the process i.e. till August 25. But due to the devastating floods it doesnt seem that the process will be completed within two weeks as the parliamentarians are busy in their respective constituencies. Four universities including University of Sindh, University of AJK, University of Peshawar and University of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai have already directly approached the lawmakers to get their certificates while rest of the universities have also been directed to seek the documents directly from MPs. The case of keeping the past record varies from university to university as they destroy it after a certain period of time so they are facing difficulties in scrutiny, as the Commission has made it mandatory to scrutinise the past record along with the Bachelors degree. It is important to mention here that the Commission has written letters earlier as well to the universities and a parallel process is also going on, initiated by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), to seek the certificates despite fear that the universities may not be able to meet the deadline due to the current situation. About 300 degrees have been verified and nearly 700 are still in the process of verification. So far HEC has declared degrees of 246 parliamentarians as genuine, 47 as fake or from the non-accredited institutions, while 12 cases of degrees are in courts. As many as 13 parliamentarians have been disqualified while six parliamentarians resigned on the basis of fake degrees.