BADIN: District and sessions judge Farooq Abbasi on Wednesday sentenced Pakistan Peoples Party leader Bibi Yasmin Shah, wife of ex-provincial minister Syed Ali Bux Shah alias Pappoo Shah, to two-years imprisonment and imposed on her fine of Rs50,000 in a case of submission of fake degree to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

After the conviction, Yasmin Shah was escorted to Hyderabad Central Jail’s women ward amid tight security.

She was taken to court by Grand Democratic Alliance leader Dr Fehmida Mirza who had filed a petition in the sessions court and election tribunal against her when she was filing nomination papers for local bodies election.

Earlier, Sindh High Court had ordered in 2007 while hearing a petition filed by Dr Mirza and her husband Dr Zulfiqar Ali Mirza that appellate tribunal conduct an inquiry into degrees of Pappoo Shah and his wife to ascertain if they were genuine.

Afterwards, the ECP had ordered that Yasmin Shah pay back salary and allowances for submitting a fake BA degree on the basis of which she was elected Senator in 2003. Despite the ECP order, Yasmin Shah and her husband Pappoo Shah had contested general elections in 2008 and 2013 and lost. They then quit Pakistan Muslim League-Functional to join PPP.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2021