PESHAWAR: An election tribunal on Wednesday disqualified Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) provincial lawmaker Ikramullah Gandapur on account of holding a fake degree.

Gandapur was serving as the provincial agricultural minister in the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet.

He was elected through a bye-election on the Dera Ismail Khan PK-67 seat, after it was vacated following the death of his brother Law Minister Israrulah Gandapur in a suicide attack.

Ikramullah’s rival candidate Fatehullah Miankhel had challenged his election before the returning officer, who forwarded it to the election tribunal for decision.

The election tribunal judge Syed Yayahi Zahid Gilani, deciding the case in favour of Fatehullah Miankhel, disqualified Gandapur for his fake degree which he presented before the election tribunal.

Speaking to Dawn.com, Gandapur claimed that all his educational certificates have been declared genuine by the election tribunal in DI Khan.

He said that the tribunal disqualified him on the mere basis of not reflecting it in the general elections of 2008, which amounts to concealment of facts. He said that his disqualification is not based on facts and he would move the Supreme Court to get justice.

For over the past 40 days, the PTI has been leading demonstrations against what it calls a federal government installed through election rigging.

Gandapur is the second PTI minister to be disqualified on charges of holding a fake degree since the party formed the KP government last year.

Yousaf Ayub, another PTI minister, was de-seated earlier for possessing a fake degree.