The Supreme Court on Thursday suspended the Balochistan High Court (BHC) order barring Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's (PTI) Balochistan President Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind from contesting the upcoming elections.

Rind will now be able to contest the elections for NA-206 and PB-17 while the SC continues to hear his appeal against disqualification.

Rind, who filed an appeal against the high court's order in the SC, told the apex court today that his master's degree was in fact a madressah degree which he had declared in the 2008 elections but had chosen to not declare this time around as it was not verifiable by the Higher Education Commission (HEC). Therefore, the omission does not signify dishonesty on his part, he argued.

The three-member bench, headed by the chief justice, then suspended the BHC decision, ordering the Election Commission of Pakistan to allot Rind a symbol to contest the poll on and issuing notices to the parties in the case.