The Supreme Court on Friday disqualified Ghafoor Lahri, a winning candidate of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) from PB-29 on grounds of having a fake degree and making false statements before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The decision was made by a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry during the hearing of a petition regarding the disqualification of Lahri by an election tribunal.
The court noted that it was logically impossible to get a bachelor’s degree just after two years of passing matriculation.
Lahri contested Union Council’s election in 2001 and had then declared that he had completed his matriculation in 1983 while during the 2002 general elections, he had presented a bachelor’s degree to the ECP that had been allegedly awarded to him in 1985.
Earlier, the SC conditionally allowed Lahri to contest the general elections stating that his winning notification would not be issued until the decision on his petition was made by the court.
Now, as Lahri won in Balochistan’s PB-29 Nasirabad constituency, the court directed the ECP to not issue his winning notification.
The court also put a fiscal penalty on him for misguiding the ECP and making false statements before the commission.