SC remands fake degree case against Shazia Marri to SHC

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday remanded a case against federal minister Shazia Marri seeking her disqualification for allegedly holding a fake degree to Sindh High Court with an observation that it could not intervene in the matter as it is already pending in the high court.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandail heard the case on Monday. The counsel for the petitioner submitted before the court that Shazia Marri had illegally acquired a degree awarded to her name sake, Shazia, a resident of Layari, Karachi.

The petitioner counsel added that she had also gotten a fake National Identity Card (NIC) in 2002, to establish that the degree mentioning the name Shazia belonged to her. However, Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial observed that Marri was elected as Member National Assembly multiple times –in 2002, 2007, 2013 and 2018 – and asked if it could still be claimed that her degree was fake.

Justice Ayesha A Malik also sought a proof from the petitioner’s counsel in this regard. The counsel replied that Shazia Marri first mentioned her date of birth as 1972 but later changed it to 1975 after acquiring the fake degree.

Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, another member of the bench, observed that another such case against Shazia Marri was already pending bending before the Sindh High Court and asked the petitioner to become a respondent in the case.