ISLAMABAD Since the fake degrees issue has raised concern over the legitimacy and performance of the Parliament as well as the true prospects of democracy, the participants of a seminar urged all the political parties to deal with the issue seriously. Senator Syed Nayyar Bukhari of PPP, Dr Isa Daudpota, renowned educationist Naeem Sadiq, education expert and Executive Director of SDPI, Dr Abid Q. Suleri spoke on the seminar 'Degrees and Democracy organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here on Monday. Senator Nayyar Bukhari while addressing the participants of the seminar maintained that the continuity of political process and democracy in the country would help to refine such conflicting issues, which had created divide the nation. He said his government would take a clear position on the issue of fake degrees and the legal process would be followed in determining the actual status of the alleged fake degree holding parliamentarians and unless that happened the alleged parliamentarians could not be removed from the Parliament or other positions. Bukhari underscored that the discontinuity in the political system and dictatorships had ruined the social and political fabric of the nation where the culture of fake degrees prevailed not only among the parliamentarians but also among the professionals of the other spheres such as professors, judges, and bureaucrats etc. Later, during the question answer session, he confessed that at present neither the coalition government had any strategy in hand to deal with that serious issue nor any party had forwarded any suggestion to resolve that legal matter. Again, while answering a question over the forcible removal of Chairman HEC by the President, he maintained that rules and regulations would be followed in that regard. Another speaker, Naeem Sadiq said that the fake degree issue should be investigated seriously and the guilty parliamentarians be banned forever as they had committed fraud and misconduct that had raised questions over the legitimacy of Parliament as well as its legislation. He demanded that the participation of the civil society should be ensured during the investigation process of alleged fake degrees besides reformation; reorganisation of 'inept ECP. as equally responsible for the prevailing culture among the parliamentarians. At the seminar, Dr Isa Daudpota lamented that no transparent and fair process was in place to ensure public and civil societys oversight on the current crisis of the fake degrees. He maintained that the Supreme Court should take serious notice of the prevalent crisis situation and seek answers from the Election Commission of Pakistan and Higher Education Commission (HEC) who had neglected their duties. He further said that the guilty parliamentarians should be punished with symbolic rigorous imprisonment according to the law of land and be kept barred from holding such positions forever.