Eligible to contest: LHC overturns Dasti’s sentence
The court also declared Dasti eligible for contesting the upcoming polls.
Dasti’s counsel said that the government has failed to produce any witnesses against his client during Wednesday’s proceedings. PHOTO: INP/FILE
MULTAN:
The Lahore High Court has overturned a three-year prison sentence handed to former Pakistan Peoples Party lawmaker Jamshed Dasti in a fake degree case and has ordered his release.
The court also declared the PPP candidate eligible for contesting the upcoming polls.
Dasti had appealed to the LHC’s Multan bench against the verdict of a District and Sessions Court, sentencing him to three years in prison and fining him Rs5,000 for holding a fake degree during the 2008 polls on a petition filed by the regional election commission.
Dasti’s counsel said that the government has failed to produce any witnesses against his client during Wednesday’s proceedings.
Furthermore, he added, the government’s counsel, Javed Hashmi, also failed to present any orders from the federation or the election commission for lodging a fake degree case against him.
After hearing the arguments, Justice Ebaadur Rehman Lodhi and Justice Ijaz Ahmed Khan declared the district court’s verdict null and void and declared Dasti eligible for contesting the elections.
The former MNA was to contest from NA-177 against PPP’s Noor Rabbani Khar and in NA-178 against PPP’s Nawabzada Iftikhar Ahmed khan.
Following the LHC’s decision, celebrations broke out in NA-178 and NA-177 and arrangements are underway to give Dasti a warm welcome in Muzaffargarh after he is released from the central prison in Multan today.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 11th, 2013.
The Lahore High Court has overturned a three-year prison sentence handed to former Pakistan Peoples Party lawmaker Jamshed Dasti in a fake degree case and has ordered his release.
The court also declared the PPP candidate eligible for contesting the upcoming polls.
Dasti had appealed to the LHC’s Multan bench against the verdict of a District and Sessions Court, sentencing him to three years in prison and fining him Rs5,000 for holding a fake degree during the 2008 polls on a petition filed by the regional election commission.
Dasti’s counsel said that the government has failed to produce any witnesses against his client during Wednesday’s proceedings.
Furthermore, he added, the government’s counsel, Javed Hashmi, also failed to present any orders from the federation or the election commission for lodging a fake degree case against him.
After hearing the arguments, Justice Ebaadur Rehman Lodhi and Justice Ijaz Ahmed Khan declared the district court’s verdict null and void and declared Dasti eligible for contesting the elections.
The former MNA was to contest from NA-177 against PPP’s Noor Rabbani Khar and in NA-178 against PPP’s Nawabzada Iftikhar Ahmed khan.
Following the LHC’s decision, celebrations broke out in NA-178 and NA-177 and arrangements are underway to give Dasti a warm welcome in Muzaffargarh after he is released from the central prison in Multan today.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 11th, 2013.