KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday sought educational certificates of Sindh Excise and Taxation Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla till April 3 in a fake degree case.
A two-member bench of the SHC heard the petition filed by a citizen, Abdul Qayoom, against Chawla for allegedly holding a fake degree. Counsels of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), education board and other respondents appeared before the court.
As soon as the hearing began in the SHC, the respondents sought the time from the honourable court to present educational certificates of the minister. The court granted the plea of respondents seeking some time for submission of the required educational certificates and directed them to appear before the court along with evidence. It adjourned the hearing of the case until April 3.
The petitioner had claimed in his plea that Chawla acquired educational degrees of Mukesh Kumar Bansari, hailing from Sajawal, and asked the court to disqualify Chawla. He said Chawla’s birth date is 1974, but the person whose degree was provided to the Election Commission was born in 1980.
He appealed that Chawla should be disqualified from public office as he is no more Sadiq and Ameen.
In 2010, the Hyderabad Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education had officially confirmed to the University of Sindh that no person by the name of Mukesh Kumar Chawla, who was also PPP’s provincial minister for excise and taxation at that time, had passed class X and XII examinations held by the board.
The board said in response to the university’s queries about Chawla’s certificates that one Mukesh Kumar Bansari had appeared in matriculation and intermediate examinations and Chawla’s particulars had been sent for verification. The verification was conducted after a man named Jay Kumar had challenged Mukesh Kumar Chawla’s election as a member of provincial assembly and sent a formal complaint to the Supreme Court, requesting it to take suo motu action.
