Pakistan Higher Education Commission (HEC) has introduced a repository system for the verification and attestation of the academic documents.
The new system will tackle the rampant problem of forged documents and will make the educational institutions responsible for assisting students in acquiring verified and attested educational documents.
The task force of PM Khan on Civil Service Reforms and Austerity Restructuring, led by Adviser Dr. Ishrat Hussain issued directives to the HEC to immediately introduce the system and instruct the degree awarding academic institutions under its supervision, to implement the system for the e-verification of their issued academic documents.
He asserted that HEC must establish and supervise the database where academic institutions, including various education boards and degree-awarding universities, instantly upload the copy of the issued degrees.
It asks all the boards of intermediate and secondary institutions, colleges and universities and all other degree-awarding institutes to digitize the results of the students and issued degrees ton a regular basis besides providing online verification services.
A digital copy of the final result and the issued degrees will be submitted to provincial and federal Higher Education commission annually for the record-keeping. Citizens will have access to their digitally verifiable degrees.
HEC Chairman asserted though he is not aware of the directions the e-verification of the documents is not possible without a reliable registration of the documents, which HEC has already initiated a few months ago.
Punjab Information Technology Board General Manager (IT) Burhan Rasool presented a comprehensive report on the proposal of e-verification and attestation of the degrees.
He elaborating on the benefits of the online verification system, asserted that on one hand it controls the rampant issue of forged academic documents and will reduce the tedious and complex process of attestation and verification of documents for the students.
He asserted that, since the attested and verified documents have become a prerequisite in the professional sector, locally and globally, the e-verification system will simplify the process for HEC to cope up with increased demand.
He further elaborated while Pakistan’s pioneering online verification system will promote transparency and authenticity of the academic documents it will also save students from certificate-related frauds.
A comprehensive and inclusive centralized digital attestation and verification system will be available across Pakistan through a service portal. All the public and private institutes will have access to the e-attestation of the academic documents. The degree holders will have access to their digitally verified degrees on a publically sharable tiny-URL.