SC adjourns DG NAB fake degree case for two weeks

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday adjourned a plea challenging the post-graduate degree of Lahore National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Director General Shahzad Saleem for two weeks.

A three-member bench, headed by Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, heard the plea, filed by journalist Asad Kharal. Azhar Saddiqui, counsel for NAB DG, apprised the bench that Higher Education Commission (HEC) had declared the post-graduation degree of his client as genuine.

He said that HEC verified Saleem’s degree (MSc Computer Science) and found it 100 percent genuine and valid (from the Azad Jammu and Kashmir in 2000-02) following the court order dated December 24, 2018.

He pleaded that the court order had been executed and there was no need to proceed this case anymore. Meanwhile, NAB additional director apprised the bench that the bureau had submitted its reply and report on the matter before the apex court.

Justice Azmat Saeed remarked that the court would look into the reply submitted by the litigants and then could pass any order in this regard. The bench subsequently adjourned further hearing of the case for two weeks.

The matter of Saleem’s degree was brought in the apex court last year during hearing of a suo motu case related to illegal appointments in the NAB. Kharral had claimed that 2002 transcript of Saleem’s master’s degree was in the Calibri font which was not commercially available until five years later. After an internal probe, NAB had declared Saleem’s degree as genuine and cleared him of any wrongdoing.