ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court Tuesday summoned the PML-N lawmaker Siddique Baloch today (Wednesday) who had challenged the verdict of an election tribunal, disqualifying him for lifetime. A three-member bench, headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, heard the appeal.Baloch could not appear in the court on Tuesday, as his lawyers told the court that he could not understand the court order the other day. Shehzad Shaukat, counsel for the petitioner, concluded his arguments on the issue of disqualification of his client pleading the court to summon the whole record of his client’s educational degrees from the board and university. “It’s a matter of lifetime disqualification of my client and hence record should be summoned for verification”, the counsel argued.Justice Mian Saqib Nisar observed that it would be a stigma if somebody had cheated the voters. Mr. Shaukat contended that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) had produced before the tribunal documents pertaining to the graduation of his client besides producing Degree Supplemental Information Form (DISF) prepared by the HEC and a covering letter as well adding that all these documents were allowed to be produced. Justice Gulzar Ahmed asked the counsel as to what the HEC had said in the covering letter.Shehzad Shaukat replied that the HEC had submitted that they had verified the degree of graduation. Justice Saqib Nisar observed that there was also a point of admissibility of these documents, questioning as to whether the HEC had stated in his report that all documents of the petitioner had been evaluated or not.Shehzad Shaukat however submitted that the findings of disqualification must be based on solid evidence.
