LAHORE, Aug 3: Chief Justice Iftikhar Husain Chaudhry of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday declared that the ‘Shahadatus Sanvia’ certificate from a religious seminary was not equivalent to the secondary school certificate (matriculation) unless a student also passed three compulsory subjects prescribed by the general education system of the country.

Dismissing nine writ petitions against the decisions of returning officers who rejected the nomination papers of Muhammad Younis and others on identical grounds, the court held that a candidate producing the ‘Shahadatus Sanvia’ certificate could not become eligible for contesting the local election because he or she did not meet the educational condition of being matriculate or having an equivalent certificate.

The high court decision, which will have a visible impact on the local-government elections for the candidates from religious institutions, also declared that obtaining an additional certificate from a board of intermediate and secondary education showing that a student had also passed in English, Urdu and Pakistan Studies, was required to claim that the ‘Shahadatus Sanvia’ certificate was on a par with the matriculation certificate.

Younis and others moved the LHC in writ petitions challenging the decision of district returning officers of Gujranwala and other districts of rejecting their candidature after it was accepted by the returning officers concerned.

Appearing on behalf of petitioner Younis, Advocate Azam Nazir Tarar submitted that the Supreme Court, the Sindh High Court and the Balochistan High Court had held in identical cases during the general election of October 2002 that certificates and degrees issued by religious institutions were on a par with those issued by boards of intermediate and secondary education and universities and were equivalent to matriculation, BA and MA.

He also submitted that the Higher Education Commission, too, had held such religious certificates and degrees equivalent to those issued by schools, colleges and universities.

A Punjab government law officer, however, produced minutes of a recent meeting held by the Inter-Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) which revised the earlier decision. Appearing on a court notice, the law officer stated that the IBCC meeting held on July 21, 2005, decided that the ‘Shahadatus Sanvia’ certificate could be acceptable as being equivalent to the matriculation certificate only if the student had also passed in compulsory subjects like English, Urdu and Pakistan Studies.

Citing the IBCC decision, the law officer submitted that a student had to obtain a certificate from a board of intermediate and secondary education that he had also passed the three compulsory subjects. Only then a certificate issued by a religious institution would be held equivalent to a matriculation certificate.

Meanwhile, Justice Syed Hamid Ali Shah also dismissed the writ petition moved by Qari Muhammad Saeed, a candidate for a Khushab union council nazim’s slot, challenging the decision of the returning officer who rejected his candidature on the grounds that he was not adequately qualified and that another candidate for the same office was his seconder.

Following the decision of the chief justice, the court held if the ‘Shahadatus Sanvia’ certificate could not be held equivalent to matriculation, the degree of ‘Shahadatul Aalmia’ could not be rated on a par with a degree from a recognized college or university either.

Petitioner’s counsel Fawad Ahmad Chaudhry argued that the HEC recognized the ‘Shahadatul Aalmia’ degree equivalent to an MA’s when the general elections were in process in 2002. He submitted that 63 members of the National Assembly were holding the same degree and their candidature was not rejected on this basis.

The counsel was of the view that if such objections were entertained, the whole parliamentary edifice and the local government system would collapse.