QUETTA Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani stunned the nation on Tuesday when he said he believed that a “degree is a degree, whether genuine or fake”.

He made the remarks while answering a question here on Tuesday about the verification of degrees of members of the Balochistan Assembly.

He said he would not be affected by any such situation because he was in his place. “I have my own house and will continue to live in that house,” he said, adding that no-one could oust him from there. When asked to comment on the chief minister's statement, provincial minister Jan Ali Changezi of the PPP told DawnNews that Mr Raisani might have made the remark as a 'joke'.

“If any legislator was found possessing a fake degree he should resign voluntarily,” he said, adding that the court verdict relating to counterfeit degrees must be honoured in letter and sprit.

Deputy Chairman of the Senate Mir Jan Mohammad Khan Jamali has indicated that 13 members of the Balochistan Assembly hold fake degrees and said that action should be taken about these people.—Saleem Shahid