Bogus degrees: High Court disqualifies Ghurki, Wattoo

Petition against PML-N’s Malik Riaz dismissed.

LAHORE:

Two former parliamentarians were disqualified on Wednesday by the Lahore High Court (LHC) for submitting bogus degrees to qualify for and contest the 2008 elections.

They are Farooq Yousaf Ghurki, an MPA belonging to the Pakistan Peoples Party (Parliamentarians) and Khadim Hussain Wattoo, a former Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) MNA.

A similar petition against a PML-Nawaz MNA Malik Riaz was dismissed because the petitioner could not prove the allegation.

Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan issued the orders on the petitions filed against the former parliamentarians.

The petition against Ghurki was filed by Iftikhar Ahmed, a voter from the politician’s constituency, PP-159. Ahmed said Ghurki had contested the 2008 elections after submitting a fake BA degree.

Ghurki sat his matriculation exams in 1990 and his BA degree was issued from Punjab University in 1992, Ahmed said.

Wattoo’s election from NA-188 (Bahawalnagar) was challenged by Zahid Hussain, a citizen. At the last hearing, Justice Khan had reserved his decision.

The petition against Riaz, who was elected an MNA from NA-118, Lahore, was filed by Iftikhar Ahmed who alleged that the Azad Jammu and Kashmir University degree submitted by Riaz to the Election Commission of Pakistan was a fake.

The petitioner had claimed that the university had conducted an inquiry, on instructions from the Higher Education Commission, and found that the MNA’s degree was a fake.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 21^st, 2013.