PESHAWAR, Sept 30: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Monday dismissed four identical writ petitions, seeking acceptance of nomination papers of four persons in the Kohistan district.

The nomination papers of the petitioners were dismissed by the returning officers concerned on the grounds that the degrees awarded to them by a religious institute in Mardan district were not equivalent to graduation.

The bench, comprising Justice Khalida Rachied and Justice Fazalur Rehman Khan, observed under the law only the University Grants Commission could grant equivalency to degrees of religious seminaries.

The petitioners — Malik Abad Khan, Munawwar Shah, Karim Khan and Sahibzada Mohammad Azhar — had claimed they were awarded degrees of Shahadatul Alamiya by the Ittehadul Madaris-al-Arabia, Mardan, which were duly recognised by the University of Peshawar.

Advocate Syed Attique Shah appeared for the petitioners and contended that in the Conduct of General Elections (Amendment) Order, 2002, it was mentioned that a person should be considered a graduate if his degree was considered equivalent to graduation by the University Grants Commission or by any other law for the time being in force. He argued that the degree of the petitioners was recognised by the Peshawar University, thus the question of not granting equivalency by the UGC was irrelevant.

Deputy Attorney-General, Hamid Farooq Durrani argued that only the UGC was the competent body to grant equivalency to degrees issued by the religious seminaries. He referred to a recent judgment of the high court in the case of provincial secretary-general of PPP, Najamuddin Khan, arguing that his degree was recognised by the Jamshoro University, but was not recognised by the UGC.

He referred to a notification of the UGC, stating that a list of religious seminaries was given by the UGC whose degrees were recognised.

Mr Shah pointed out that in the said notification only institutions belonging to Punjab and Sindh were mentioned, whereas none of the institutions of the NWFP and Balochistan were mentioned. “Even Darul Uloom Deoband and Haqqania are not mentioned in that notification,” he argued.