Fake degree: PML-N MNA declared ineligible

Decision follows ruling of election tribunal which declared lawmaker from NA-153 had a fake degree

MULTAN: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday declared a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA ineligible. The decision follows the ruling of an election tribunal in Bahawalpur that declared that the lawmaker from NA-153 had a fake degree. Dewaan Aashiq Bukhari had won the 2013 general elections from Multan VI. Rana Qasim Noon, the rival Pakistan Peoples Party candidate from the constituency, had then filed an application in the Bahawalpur election tribunal, stating that Bukhari’s academic degrees were fakes and he should be declared ineligible. “All of Bukhari’s degrees are fake. He did not even pass the matriculation examination,” Noon had stated in his application. The tribunal ruled that the allegations had been proved. The ECP has now cancelled Bukhari’s membership of the National Assembly. The ECP will soon announce a date for by-elections on the vacant seat.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2014.