The Lahore High Court has warned Malik Iqbal Langrial of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam that his membership of the Punjab Assembly will be suspended if he does not record his testimony with a local commission considering a plea for his disqualification.
Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed made the observation after he was told that the MPA had not yet made a statement before the commission, which was set up a year ago. The judge warned that if the MPA did not appear before the commission at the summons, he would forfeit his right to make a statement.
Langrial was elected to the assembly from PP-226 seat, Chichawatni. His rival for the seat, Saifur Rehman of the PML-Nawaz, had challenged his election on the grounds that his bachelors degree is a fake. Rehman moved an application in the court on Friday stating that Langrial was avoiding recording his testimony.
Langrial’s counsel said that the MPA had been too ill to appear before the commission.
Justice Saeed asked how, if he was so sick, he had been doing his job as an MPA. “Assembly members who defy court orders have no right to sit in the assemblies,” the judge observed, and threatened to pass an order “that might affect him in the next election”.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 1st, 2011.
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