LAHORE, Dec 26: A full bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday declared ineligible PPP candidate Arif Chaudhry for NA-144, Okara, and PML-N candidate Sheikh Amjad Aziz for PP-156, Lahore, after finding their graduation degrees fake.

Arif Chaudhry’s rival and former federal minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal had challenged the verdict of an LHC election tribunal, which had allowed Arif to contest the Jan 8 elections.

Rao Sikandar said Arif could not participate in the upcoming election because he was not a graduate.

He said Mr. Arif has got a fake bachelor’s degree from a Larkana university and submitted it along with his nomination papers to show that he was eligible, but the retuning officer had rejected his nomination papers. He said when Arif filed an appeal before the tribunal, he was allowed to contest the elections.

The bench also declined to allow PML-N candidate Sheikh Amjad Aziz to fight for PP-156. After hearing arguments from both sides, the bench held that Aziz possessed a fake bachelor’s degree.

Aziz said he had won PP-156 seat in the 2002 general elections but later he was disqualified on the ground that he did not have original graduation degree. He said he had secured original degree from the university now and he should be allowed to contest the upcoming elections.

The bench also sought university record for Thursday (today) regarding graduation degrees of two brothers, Rasheed Akbar Nawani and Saeed Akbar Nawani, contesting for NA-74 and PP-47, respectively.

Their rivals Afzal Khan and Ghazanfar Abbas have challenged acceptance of their nomination papers. Khan and Abbas claim that both the brothers possess a fake degree.

The court also rejected a petition seeking disqualification of PML-Q candidate Saddiqui Khan contesting for NA-154.