Fake degree?: SHC allows petition by minority MPA

ECP restrained from taking any action against Pitambar Sehwani, who is an MPA on a minority seat.

KARACHI: A division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) restrained the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday from taking any action against Pitambar Sehwani, who is an MPA on a minority seat.

Chief Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi heard Sehwani’s lawyer Barrister Zamir Ghumro and respondents, including the ECP, Sindh University and the Board of Intermediate Education, Hyderabad.

Allowing the petition, the bench ordered that no action shall be taken against him without hearing him or verifying his documents through the due process of law.

Earlier, the news of the ECP declaring Sehwani’s Matric and Intermediate certificates as fake was carried by newspapers and the petitioner feared that he may lose his seat.

He maintained that although he approached the respondent board with his original documents, the board has yet to decide his case.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2011.