Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar has remarked that the character of elected public representatives should be spotless.
He gave these remarks while presiding over a 3-member bench of the Supreme Court (SC) during the course of hearing an appeal plea filed by PML-N leader Zia ur Rehman against the Peshawar High Court (PHC) decision in his disqualification case on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court (SC) admitted the petition of the petitioner Zia ur Rehman for hearing but rejected his plea seeking the suspension of the PHC’s decision.
During the course of hearing, Tariq Mehmood, counsel for Zia Ur Rehman took the plea that the PHC didn’t take facts into consideration before giving the decision. Not a single forum declared the educational degree of his client fake before the 2013 general elections, he claimed. Zia’s degree was misplaced and therefore he listed his educational qualification as matriculation, his counsel said.
Mehmood also cited to Siddique Baloch Case during the hearing.
“No one from any madrassah has verified the degree of your client,” the CJP remarked.
He further observed that “unfortunately, Zia is not ‘Sadiq’ (truthful). Zia passed his matriculation examination in 1996 and acquired his B A degree from the madrassah in the same year? He should prove the legal status of his degree.”
The court issued a notice to the vice chancellor of Shah Abdul Latif University and directed the official to file a record pertaining to Mian Zia Ur Rehman’s degree before the court during the next hearing.
Advocate Tariq Mehmood plead the court to issue stay orders for polling in his client’s constituency till a decision could be reached.
The chief justice remarked the case would be over long before the elections, and adjourned the hearing of the case for ten days.
PML-N leader Zia ur Rehman was elected as an MPA from KP-54 and later disqualified by the PHC for having a fake degree.
