ISLAMABAD, May 20: The Supreme Court ordered on Thursday fresh election in PP-156 Lahore by unseating PML-Q MPA Haroon Akhtar. A three-member SC bench, comprising Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui, Justice Javed Iqbal and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar , ordered the re-election after disposing of an appeal filed by Shaikh Amjad Aziz, earlier elected MPA from the same constituency in Lahore but disqualified by the Election Tribunal on charges of possessing a fake graduation degree.

The tribunal while deciding against Mr Aziz declared Mr Akhtar, the runner-up candidate, as the candidate returned. Being aggrieved, Mr Aziz moved an appeal before the Supreme Court by challenging the decision of the tribunal.

Advocates Raja Anwer and Raja Shafqat Abbasi, representing the petitioner, pleaded that Mr Aziz was declared disqualified on the ground of possessing a fake educational degree despite the fact that the probe committee of the Punjab University had verified his graduation result. During the proceedings, they also submitted a report of the probe commission of the university before the court.

Justice (retired) Malik Qayyum, the counsel for Mr Akhtar meanwhile, argued in his defence that the election tribunal had declared Mr Aziz disqualified after verifying all the evidence about his bogus educational degree. He said Mr Aziz got his educational degree just before the 2002 general election whereas he had claimed that he had passed the examination eight years ago.

Raja Shafqat Abbasi argued that his client was a victim of a conspiracy hatched by retired army officers as, according to him, respondent Akhtar was the son of the late Gen Akhtar Abdul Rahman and brother of incumbent cabinet minister Humayun Akhtar Khan while the vice-chancellor of the Punjab University was also a retired general and the additional registrar was a retired colonel.

Thus, he said, the military personnel were patronizing the respondent against his client. Besides the respondent was not entitled to sit in the provincial assembly since he had not filed any appeal against the filing of the nomination papers of his client, he said.

The bench after hearing arguments from both the sides disposed of the appeal and ordered fresh election in the constituency, the detailed reasons of which would be recorded later.