A PML-N legislator from Khyber- Pakthtunkhwa province of northwest Pakistan has been disqualified for possessing a fake educational degree.
Qaimos Khan was disqualified by an election tribunal, which ordered fresh polls in his constituency, the Dawn daily reported today.
Awami National Party candidate Haider Ali had challenged Khan's election to the provincial Assembly on the ground that he had submitted a forged graduation degree with his nomination papers for the 2008 general election.
Ali claimed Khan had mentioned in his nomination papers that he was a graduate, which at the time was mandatory for contesting elections. Later, Khan produced a forged graduation degree of Bahauddin Zakriya University in Multan.
Khan had bagged 10,687 votes, against 10,028 votes by Ali. Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader Ali Shah had supported Haider Ali's contention.
Ali's lawyer told the election tribunal that Khan did his matriculation in 1962 and passed the intermediate examination in Quetta in 2005.
He pointed out that within a year, Khan had done his graduation in 2006. The lawyer contended that under relevant rules, a candidate has to clear the graduation examination in two years and not in a single year, which meant his degree was forged.
"Although the condition of graduation was not applicable in the 2013 general elections, but as he had provided wrong information during the 2008 elections, he was not righteous and sagacious, which was a qualification given in Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution to be a lawmaker," the lawyer argued.
