ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission has denotified a PML-Q legislator about two years after the expiry of his term in the assembly. Mian Shafi Mohammad was elected member of the Punjab Assembly in 2008 polls.

The notification was issued in pursuance of two orders of the election commission passed on Oct 30, 2013 and Jan 14, 2014 in a fake degree case against the PML-Q lawmaker pending with it since 2010.

Mian Shafi is brother of Mian Abdul Sattar, who was elected MNA from Rahim Yar Khan in 2008 on a PPP ticket. Mian Shafi had resigned from his seat days before the 2013 general elections.

A senior ECP official told Dawn that the de-notification meant that he had never been elected as MPA and was bound to return all privileges had had enjoyed during his term in office.

The official said that anybody could move a case against a former legislator who had submitted a fake academic degree along with his nomination papers in any previous elections.

On April 1, 2013, the Supreme Court had directed the Higher Education Commission to verify the degrees of as many as 189 lawmakers. The HEC had expedited the process and found the degrees of some legislators fake.

Mian Shafi was one of them.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2015

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