PESHAWAR, Nov 25: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday reserved judgment over a writ petition seeking disqualification of a provincial lawmaker on ground of possessing fake degree.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Sardar Shaukat Hayat and Justice Imtiaz Ali fixed Dec 2 for pronouncing the verdict in the petition filed by a member of minority community, Rajinder Kumar.

The petitioner stated that the graduation certificate of Kishore Kumar, who was elected on seats reserved for minorities, was fake and thus he was not qualified to contest the general elections in 2008.

Advocate Habib Qureshi appeared for the petitioner and stated that Mr Kumar was elected on the reserved seats on MMA ticket.

He contended that the said MPA was not a graduate, a precondition for contesting the 2008 general elections. He contended that the MPA had produced a provisional certificate of graduation from the Gomal University, D.I. Khan in 1999.

Mr Qureshi argued that according to the result gazette of the university the MPA appearing in that examination under Roll No. 1195 had failed the examination. He further pointed out that so far the MPA had not produced his original degree and contested polls on the basis of the said forged provisional certificate.

The counsel also pointed out that according to the relevant record, the MPA had not done his graduation from that university.

The petitioner has also requested the court to declare as returned candidate the next person mentioned on the priority list submitted by the MMA to the Election Commission in the 2008 general election for filling the seats reserved for minorities in the provincial assembly.

Arrest warrants issued