Fake degrees: PML-N’s Khan given ‘last chance’

The petitioner wants the MNA to be disqualified and criminal proceedings initiated against the legislator.

LAHORE: Fake degree holders are not eligible to sit in the parliament, remarked Lahore High Court Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Friday. He was hearing various petitions seeking disqualification of several parliamentarians who face criminal charges for lying about their university degrees. When Justice Bandial resumed the hearing, he was informed that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MNA Mazhar Hayat Khan had not appeared before the court despite repeated summons. The CJ expressed displeasure over Khan’s non-appearance and gave him the ‘last chance’ to prove that his degree was authentic. The court will hear the case next on January 24, 2013. A citizen, Arshad Ibrahim, has filed the petition, saying that Khan had contested election from NA-138 Kasur and won. The petitioner said that the MNA’s degree could not be verified when the Higher Education Commission (HEC) sent it to the USA university concerned. Police had registered an FIR against Khan at the orders of the Kasur sessions judge. The petitioner wants the MNA to be disqualified. He also wants criminal proceedings initiated against the legislator.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2012.