RAWALPINDI, Oct 4: The Pakistan People’s Party’s Awam Dost panel was on Tuesday hit by allegations of impersonation by its candidate for Rawal Town nazim Mian Khurram Rasool in the matriculation examination this year.

The matter is being probed by the discipline department of the Rawalpindi Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, controller examinations Humayun Iqbal confirmed to Dawn.

Documents provided by the board on the directives of Lahore High Court showed a discrepancy in the pictures on the application form and the centre superintendent’s slip.

The original application form bore Mr Rasool’s picture while the centre superintendent’s slip carried the photograph of someone else. Similarly, there are differences in the signatures on the two documents prompting allegations that someone else had appeared on behalf of Mr Rasool in the examinations. The controller said the matter was being looked into as a possible case of impersonation.

If proven the charges would put the PPP out of contention for the seat. Sources in the party revealed that party leadership was busy putting in contingency plans to avert any situation and it is likely that Anjum Farooq Piracha would be back into spotlight in case of some development in the case.

Earlier, Justice Sardar Mohammad Aslam had disposed of an appeal by Malik Sultan Mehmood and directed the BISE to provide copies of the record of Mr Rasool to the petitioner.

The petitioner had subsequently obtained the record from the board in the afternoon.