I THINK, and you will agree that, instead of harping on the legitimacy of a paper showing qualifications, the emphasis should be on the crime of fraud/forgery which is punishable under prevailing laws. I fail to understand why our media concentrates on the authenticity of the degree of a candidate contesting election to parliament where laws are drafted and adopted.

Isn't it the responsibility of our Election Commissioner to verify such issues before accepting nomination papers? For how long are we going to survive without punishing the criminals who deceive the state, subject peasants and their families to barbarous treatment but are never reprimanded even though men, women and children are recovered by our courts from 'private prisons' of waderas. It is a long list of such crimes to which no law is applicable.

Let the criminal, howsoever influential he may be, brought within the ambit of law!

DR. M. S. JAFFERY

Karachi