Ex-parte proceedings start against Minister Ghurki

Farooq Yousaf Ghurki accused of contesting election on the basis of a bogus graduate degree.

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC), on Thursday, began ex-parte proceedings against provincial minister Farooq Yousaf Ghurki in a petition accusing him of contesting election on the basis of a bogus graduate degree.

LHC’s Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed started the ex-parte proceedings after repeatedly issuing notices to Ghurki. Ghurki, however, did not appear before the court.

The judge noted that on September 20 the last notice was served to Ghurki through an advertisement in the local newspapers but no one had appeared on his behalf.

Pakistan Peoples Party’s MPA Farooq Yousaf Ghurki, currently the Provincial Minister for Information Technology, had contested election from PP-159.

Iftikhar Ahmed, a voter from PP-159, has filed a petition submitting that Ghurki had presented a bogus BA degree to the election commission to meet the criteria for contesting elections.

Ahmed said that Ghurki should be disqualified as MPA and minister as he cheated the election commission. He alleged that Ghurki appeared in the 1990 matriculation examination and his BA degree was purportedly from Punjab University in 1992. He said that after the matriculation exam, two years are needed to sit in the FA examination and then another two years to sit in the BA examination. This, he said, indicated that Ghurki had a bogus BA degree.

He alleged that the respondent used a bogus FA certificate to appear in the BA examination as he had not passed the FA examination.

He prayed to the court that Ghurki be declared disqualified under Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution as he is a dishonest person.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2010.