The Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan’s degree attestation system is so complicated and time-consuming that one gets fed up with it. First, one must go to the university that issued the degree to get it verified before applying for degree attestation from the HEC. Every university charge a certain amount for the verification; when I got my degree verified by University of the Punjab, I had to pay a sum of Rs. 1750 for this purpose. The universities take about two weeks or so to verify the degrees. After that, one should apply for an online examination of their degree(s) at the HEC portal. Once the examination is completed, you will be asked to either schedule your appointment to personally visit the HEC office for ‘urgent’ attestation of your degree(s) or send the original documents through a designated courier service. In the case of a personal visit, the degree(s) will be attested on the same day and the charges are Rs. 5000. But if you opt for the courier service, you should wait for about a fortnight to get your document(s) attested. The HEC’s fee for degree attestation through courier is Rs. 1000 for an original document and Rs. 700 for each photocopy.

I don’t know why the HEC has made this system so complex when the whole process can be completed in a few minutes without any hassle. Every university has a complete record of its students, and it is archived on their computer systems. The HEC can establish an integrated system and connect all the universities with it. Anyone who wants to verify a degree can go to the HEC portal and enter the details of the document there. Within a minute, the HEC can verify whether the details match with its record or not. Yes, a certain fee can be charged by the HEC for the verification/attestation, and that can be paid through different modes, including online banking and other digital payment platforms.