Court directed to decide case against minister speedily

The Lahore High Court on Monday disposed of a petition of Federal Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan and directed an anti-corruption court to decide without delay proceedings questioning the veracity of a diploma he possessed.

A lawyer representing the minister told the court that the trial court had been delaying the proceedings for no reasons whereas the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) had already filed a report for the cancellation of a case it lodged earlier on political consideration. He asked the court to issue a directive to the trial court to decide the matter at the earliest. Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi disposed of the petition and directed the trial court to conclude the proceedings without delay.

On last hearing, the ACE had told the high court that a diploma of Punjab Board of Technical Education possessed by the minister had been found genuine. It stated that allegations against the minister of having obtained a fake diploma had been found baseless during a thorough inquiry. Sarwar Khan had filed the petition challenging the jurisdiction of the anti-corruption court to hear a case about his alleged fake degree of graduation. He had alleged that the trial court was holding proceedings against him at the behest of then PML-N government. Interestingly, the ACE in its earlier report filed before the trial court had declared the minister guilty and stated that his indictment had been delaying due to his non-appearance.