SHC orders verification of Yasmeen Shah’s alleged fake degree

ECP had ordered to take back her salary and allowances

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday ordered re-verification of Yasmeen Shah’s Bachelor of Arts degree within one month. The court set aside an Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) order, regarding her disqualification from the Senate for allegedly having a fake degree.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, directed the petitioner to cooperate with the ECP and the varsity management during the re-verification of her BA degree and disposed of Shah's petition.

She had approached the SHC soon after the ECP in November 2017 declared that her degree was fake and ordered the collection of her salary and allowances.

In its detailed verdict, the ECP had said that Shah submitted a fake BA degree at the time she was elected senator in 2003.



In her plea, Shah had denied the allegations of possessing and submitting a fake degree along with her nomination papers. She had pleaded the court to set aside the ECP’s decision for being illegal and unconstitutional. She had further requested the court to restore her Senate membership.

Former National Assembly speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza had filed a petition challenging Shah's candidature in the upper house of Parliament.

A five-member bench of the election commission had also cancelled the notification through which Shah was declared a senator. Shah and her husband Ali Bux Shah alias Pappu Shah are an influential couple of Badin who lost the 2008 and 2013 general elections.



Earlier in 2007, the SHC heard a petition filed by Fehmida Mirza and her husband Zulfikar Mirza and ordered an appellate tribunal to conduct an inquiry about the authenticity of Pappu Shah’s BBA degree and his wife’s graduation degree. In 2015, Pappu Shah and his wife Yasmeen Shah left the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional and joined the Pakistan People’s Party.