LAHORE, Jan 15: A three-member bench of the Lahore High Court dismissed on Wednesday a writ petition, seeking the disqualification of PML-N’s MPA from PP-156.

Haroon Akhtar Khan had challenged the election of Sheikh Amjad Aziz on the ground that the latter had appended a forged B.Sc. degree with his nomination papers filed before the returning officer for October polls.

The bench observed that following an acknowledgment of Punjab University’s counsel that Amjad Aziz did not appear in the B.Sc. examination, the matter required a detailed inquiry and deeper appreciation. The bench could not interfere in it.

Justices M. Javed Buttar, Ejaz Ahmad Chaudhry and Syed Jamshed Ali observed that the Punjab University had also submitted in its report that there were fraudulent interpolations in its record of degrees and examinations. This statement had made the matter liable to be scrutinized through a detailed inquiry, which was beyond the scope of the petition.

The bench has no means to confirm this statement and to disqualify the respondent on the basis of such statement, therefore, the petition stands dismissed, observed the court.

The bench ruled that since the petitioner had also filed an election petition against Amjad Aziz before the election tribunal during the pendency of this petition, he should seek relief from the tribunal.

It was observed that any petition filed against the acceptance of nomination papers of a candidate could not be allowed since it would contravene Section 52 of Representation of People’s Act 1976.

Earlier, the petitioner’s counsel submitted that Sheikh Amjad had failed in the intermediate examination twice and did not appear in it again. He submitted that by any stretch of imagination, a student failing twice in intermediate examination with no evidence available as to whether he actually cleared it in the third attempt, could not be presumed to have cleared B.Sc. examination with distinction in a double mathematics and statistics combination.

He submitted that even if the bench did not deem it proper to pass judgment on a matter requiring detailed inquiry, it should at least summon the respondent and ask him for a proof of his appearance in the B.Sc. examination.