December 11, 2002	Wednesday	Shawwal 6, 1423

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MULTAN, Dec 10: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leader Mian Ihsan Bari has challenged the educational credentials of federal minister Abdul Sattar Laleka.

Speaking at a press conference here on Tuesday, Mr Bari claimed that the federal minister for manpower and overseas Pakistanis was a matriculate and had deceived the Election Commission of Pakistan by submitting a ‘fake’ graduation degree — issued by an institution that did not exist.

He said in his nomination papers in earlier elections, the minister had always claimed to possess a GCE certificate, which was equivalent to matriculation. However, when the graduation condition was introduced, Mr Laleka produced a bachelor’s degree in business administration which, he claimed, had been awarded to him by the “Canadian School of Management” in 1990.

Mr Bari said it was strange that the minister had kept his graduation degree a secret for such a long time and that he had been issued the marksheet on May 10, 2000.

He said he had tried to locate the office of the Canadian School, but found none in Karachi at the address given on the marksheet.

He said according to the degree, Mr Laleka did his graduation from 1987 to 90, when he was a federal minister. Mr Bari claimed that there was nothing on record to show that Mr Laleka had ever sought leave either from the National Assembly or the federal cabinet to sit in exams during that period.

He demanded institution of a fraud case against the minister. He also urged the Supreme Court and the Lahore High Court to take sue motu notice of the ‘fraud’.

He distributed copies of Mr Laleka’s graduation degree and marksheet among reporters.

Mr Bari was one of the opponents of the federal minister from NA-190 (Bahawalnagar) in the Oct 10 elections.

When contacted in this regard, Mr Laleka was not available to comment on the allegations levelled against him by Mian Bari.