SC takes up DG NAB Lahore’s degree case on 12th

ISLAMA­BAD: The Supreme Court (SC) will take up, on November 12, the matter pertaining to the alleged fake degree of NAB Lahore Director General Shehzad Saleem and issued notices to the parties concerned. A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsen and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah will hear the petition filed by one Asad Kharal.

According to the SC website cause list issued pertaining to cases to be taken up next week, a notice has been issued to the petitioner. NAB Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal had earlier sought a report from his subordinates about the dubious degree on the directions of the Supreme Court but no apparent action was taken on the issue since October 2017.

The apex court had earlier sought a report from the NAB chairman while hearing journalist Asad Kharal’s petition, wherein he has alleged that the degree issued in 2002 is written in Calibri font, which was commercially available only in 2007.

Likewise, the same bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, will also resume hearing in the petition filed by Muhammad Adil Chattha and Mirza Abdul Moiz Beg, challenging the appointment of Zulfiqar Bukhari as Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development with the status of minister of state who has dual citizenship.

They prayed the apex court to declare void the notification issued on September 14, 2018, regarding the appointment of Mr Bukhari as Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development with the status of minister of state.

They recalled that the Supreme Court in Dr Muhammad Tahirul Qadri versus Federation of Pakistan (PLD 2013 SC 413) held that the petitioner has acquired the citizenship of Canada and has taken an oath, inter alia, to pledge his loyalty and allegiance to Canada which disqualifies him from contesting elections to parliament in view of the bar contained in Article 63(1) C of the Constitution, which has been elaborately discussed in the case of Syed Mehmood Akhtar Naqvi versus the Federation of Pakistan (PLD 2012 SC 1089)

“In view of this, it is evident that individuals who possess dual citizenship are disqualified from becoming members of the parliament, thereby rendering them disqualified to serve as federal or minister of state,” the petitioners contended.

They further submitted that it is a matter of record that Zulfiqar Bukhari is a British citizen, holding passport number 518157071, and this has been acknowledged by Prime Minister Imran Khan in an interview on Geo News Capital Talk on June 26, 2018.

The petitioners further submitted that it is a cardinal principle of law and justice that what cannot be done directly, cannot be done indirectly. They further contended that a person who is, otherwise, disqualified to become a member of parliament and, therefore, ineligible to become a minister and cannot be given the status of minister of state by appointing him as Special Assistant to Prime Minister.

The petitioners prayed the apex court to declare void the notification issued on September 14, 2018, regarding the appointment of Bukhari as Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development with the status of minister of state.