Lawmakers with fake degrees to be prosecuted

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

By Iftikhar A. Khan
Friday, 07 May, 2010
ISLAMABAD: Acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Javed Iqbal ordered on Thursday prosecution of lawmakers whose educational degrees had been declared to be fake and bogus by courts. The order said that such people must not be allowed to contest any election in future.

Justice Iqbal directed that legal action against the lawmakers be immediately initiated. He pointed out that filing false and incorrect declarations and statements by a candidate was an offence of “Corrupt Practice” under section 78 of the Representation of the People’s Act, 1976, and was triable by District and Sessions Judge under Section 94(2) of the Act.

The Acting CEC also directed that election petitions in which bachelor degrees of successful candidates were under dispute be decided, preferably, within four weeks by Election Tribunals after day-to-day hearing.

The order was issued a day after the Supreme Court declared that those who had resigned from the national and provincial assemblies on charges of possessing fake degrees would be ineligible to contest bye-elections.

Interestingly, Justice Javed Iqbal, it may be mentioned, headed the three-member bench of the Supreme Court, which set honesty and fair play as the criterion for holders of public offices and observed that a person deceiving people with a counterfeit degree did not qualify to contest elections.

Informed sources told Dawn that 142 election petitions were pending before election tribunals and many of them challenged the qualification of successful candidates on the plea that they were holding fake degrees. The sources said the Election Commission had asked the provincial election commissioners to provide details of the petitions.

Legal experts believe that the principle laid down by the apex court was binding in nature and the Chief Election Commissioner’s directives were meant to implement the judgment in letter and spirit.

They said there were instances of speakers sitting on disqualification references for political reasons and pointed out that during the days of Gen (retd) Musharraf the Speaker of the National Assembly did not forward disqualification references against lawmakers who had crossed the floor to join the PPP Patriots.