PESHAWAR, Sept 4: The provincial and local leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) have lost their political credibility by submitting fake educational degrees with their nomination papers in Malakand, Mardan and Taxila.

It seems as if they had deliberately opted for a moral bankruptcy even before the forthcoming general election, and now three main leaders of the party cannot contest for any seat in the NWFP.

Frontier Province PPP President Khwaja Mohammad Khan Hoti, who withdrew his papers two days ago in protest against the rejection of Benazir Bhutto’s nomination papers in Sindh, has been accused by rivals of submitting a fake degree with the returning officers concerned.

He had filed his papers for PF-24, Mardan-II, where he had emerged as a strong candidate after striking a deal with the Awami National Party (ANP).

Though Umar Farooq Hoti, his elder son, is contesting for the same seat, he did not lodge any protest over the expulsion of PPP chairperson from the election race.

Kamal Shah, a PPP (Sherpao) candidate from the same area, claim that Mr Hoti had produced a fake degree with his papers and after fearing the exposure of his illegal act, he had withdrawn from contesting polls.

Some rivals of the PPP provincial chief term his withdrawal a political stunt to cover up his blunder.

But the PPP sources deny the allegations, saying that Mr Hoti had earned a degree in Mass Communication from the University of Jamshoro, Sindh.

Another top PPP leader, Najmuddin Khan, who is party’s provincial general-secretary, had allegedly submitted a fake degree. He was contesting for NA-33, in Upper Dir.

He had furnished a religious degree of Anwarul Aloom, Hyderabad, with his documents.

A Jamaat-i-Islami candidate, Maulana Asadullah, contesting for the same seat, termed the degree fake and challenged its validity.

Jamaat sources said the Hyderabad police had arrested the caretaker of the seminary, Abdus Sattar Bozdar, for issuing a bogus degree to Najmuddin Khan. But, Mr Khan claimed the degree was not fake.

The sources said that a student of any seminary needed at least seven or eight years to obtain a religious degree, but Mr Khan had not attended any such religious school.

Sarwar Khan, a PPP nominee from Taxila, holds a genuine B.A. degree without passing the intermediate examinations. He is stated to have passed his graduation after furnishing an intermediate certificate of someone else. Even then his nomination papers were accepted.

PPP senior Vice-president Syed Qamar Abbas has not filed papers for personal reasons. Hence, the three top leaders have made themselves onlookers in the entire exercise.

PPP sources said that Ms Bhutto had time and again asked the candidates not to submit their papers if they were not eligible.