MNA Zahoor Khosa disqualified

SC disqualified a provincial legislator from Balochistan, Zahoor Hussain Khosa, for falsifying his academic degree.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday disqualified a provincial legislator from Balochistan, Zahoor Hussain Khosa, for falsifying his academic degree and ordered the Election Commission to take strict action against him.

According to reports, the three-member bench headed by the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry found the legislator, elected from PP26, guilty of possessing a bogus degree. His degree was challenged by Abdul Rehman Jamali in a petition.

The SC has also directed the Balochistan administration to hold a re-election in the constituency. The court dismissed appeal pleas filed by federal lawmaker Mudassar Qayyum Nahra and his provincial counterpart Yasir Malik against their disqualification by the court.

Waseem Sajjad, on behalf of Yasir Malik, told the court that the election tribunal had declared him disqualified for the reason that different photos of his client were pasted on his admission form.  He added that no evidence was provided against his client, while he had presented two witnesses.

The CJP remarked that although Malik had presented two witnesses, he had not appeared himself. “The degree of your client had also been cancelled by Higher Education Commission,” he added.

The election tribunal had also unseated Mudassar Qayyum Nahra for possessing a fake degree. He was elected as a federal lawmaker from Gujranwala constituency NA-100 and filed an appeal plea in the SC against his disqualification.

Abdul Hafiz Pirzada, the counsel for Nahra, told the court that his client was not at fault, saying that the Punjab University had barred him from appearing in the examination for three years leading him to appear in the examination held under Islamia University in Bahawalpur.

“We will have to change the verdict on the NRO to hear your appeal,” the CJP remarked. This appeal plea was also dismissed.

The court has also directed Balochistan Labour Minister Mohammad Sarwar to present the degree through which he contested the elections.

The hearing has been adjourned till August 13.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 31^st, 2010.