Election Tribunal disqualifies JI MPA in fake degree case

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Election Tribunal on Thursday disqualified Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) MPA Malik Behram Khan for having a fake educational degree and issued directives to the Election Commission of Pakistan to hold re-election in the PK-93 Upper Dir constituency.
The Election Tribunal’s presiding officer Justice (R) Shah Jee Rehman issued the verdict on an election petition of rival candidate from Pakistan People’s Party, Sahibzada Sanaullah, who accused the MPA of possessing dubious graduation degree and impersonation during an examination.
“After hearing arguments from both the parties, examining statements of official witnesses and records of Malakand University regarding BA degree, the JI MPA does not fulfill the requirements of ‘Sadiq’ and ‘Ameen’ under Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution and thus he stands disqualified as MPA of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly,” the tribunal stated in its short order.
The Election Tribunal heard the election petition again after it was remanded back by the Supreme Court to it.Earlier, the Election Tribunal in June 2014 had dismissed the petition against the election of Malik Behram with the direction to the Malakand University to probe the degree issue of the MPA.
During hearing of the petition, petitioner Sahibzada Sanaullah’s lawyer Qazi Jawad Ihsanullah Qureshi submitted that following the tribunal’s order, the University of Malakand constituted a committee for resolving the issue and in the light of its findings it cancelled the graduation degree of Malik Behram.
The university cancelled the degree of Malik Behram on ground of impersonation. It had observed that different persons had appeared instead of him to take the graduation part-1 and part-2 examinations in 2005 and 2007, respectively.
He said the MPA then challenged the university’s action and cancellation of his degree in Darul Qaza.He recalled that Darul Qaza dismissed the writ petition filed by the MPA and declared as legal the cancellation of his graduation degree by the University of Malakand on the ground of impersonation. He noted that the MPA challenged Darul Qaza’s decision in the Supreme Court, which referred the case to the Election Tribunal.
The petitioner’s lawyer submitted that the JI MPA had submitted a fake BA degree along with his nomination papers in the 2008 general election and again in the 2013 general election. He argued that Malik Behram doesn’t fulfill the requirement to be ‘Sadiq’ and ‘Ameen’ after the University of Malakand proved that the degree was a fake.
On the other hand, The MPA’s lawyer argued that the court had not declared him as violator of articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution and thus the election petition ought to be dismissed.Malik Behram had won from the provincial assembly constituency PK-93 Upper Dir -III in the 2013 general election by receiving 13,580 votes whereas Sahibzada Sanaullah had secured 9,799 votes.
Malik Behram is currently the chairman of the provincial assembly’s standing committee on finance and member of the committees on administration, home and tribal affairs and communication and works.