Former PPP MPA arrested after conviction

He had been convicted by sessions court for submitting fake degree before ECP

HYDERABAD: A former MPA of Pakistan Peoples Party, sentenced to two years imprisonment in the fake degree case, surrendered himself to the police for arrest after Sindh High Court (SHC) rejected his appeal against the lower court's verdict last month. The SHC earlier dismissed appeal of Bashir Ahmed Sarewal, who was elected from Talhar, Badin district, in 2008 general elections, on May 15.

However, Sarewal was absent from the court on the date of announcement of the judgment. Sarewal had submitted a fake graduation degree in the Election Commission of Pakistan to contest the 2008 elections.

His opponents challenged his qualification after which former district and sessions judge Badin Ghualm Rasool Samo sentenced the ex-MPA to two years imprisonment and fine in September, 2013. Subsequently, Sarewal was shifted to the jail from where he was released after securing bail from SHC on October 9, 2013.

He has remained on bail since then. Sarewal evaded his arrest for a month until Thursday when advocate Muhammad Yousuf Laghari submitted an application on behalf of the MPA that he wanted to surrender to the police.

The bench of Justice Nadeem Akhtar and Justice Rasheed Ahmed Soomro on Thursday ordered the Badin district police to arrest Sarewal and shift him to Central Prison Hyderabad. The condition of graduation qualification for eligibility to contest the elections for the provincial and national assemblies as well as the Senate was removed through the 18th constitutional amendment.

The military government of former president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf had introduced the graduation or equivalent qualification condition before the 2002 general elections. The requirement remained in place till the 2008 elections.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2019.