ISLAMABAD, Jan 5: Abdul Qadir Gilani, son of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and who is facing allegations related to the 2010 Haj scandal, is not out of the woods yet. Now his graduation degree is under the scrutiny of the investigators probing the corruption case.

Feeling hurt, Mr Gilani approached the Supreme Court on Saturday, seeking a restraining order against Investigation Officer (IO) Hussain Asghar from probing into the validity of his BA degree.

Mr Gilani was elected member of the National Assembly on July 19 last year after he won a by-election from NA-151, Multan.

The seat had fallen vacant after his father was disqualified in a contempt of court case on June 19.

Two applications were filed by senior counsel Abdul Hafeez Pirzada on behalf of Mr Gilani, one to become a party in the Haj scandal case on which the Supreme Court will resume hearing on Jan 11 and the other requesting the court to restrain Mr Asghar from probing into the degree issue.

The petition alleged that the officer has lost all impartiality required of an investigating officer.

Mr Asghar had been was relieved of the investigations by the Gilani administration after he was posted outside the capital by elevating him as the inspector general of police in Gilgit-Baltistan. But the government later succumbed to the insistence of the apex court to reinstate the officer in the Federal Investigation Agency so that he could resume the investigations into the Haj scandal.

Recently, the officer submitted a progress report to court, alleging that during investigations a reliable source had informed him that the bachelor’s degree of Mr Gilani had been obtained fraudulently.

The report went on to say that the Punjab University had been asked to provide the record of the BA degree and the assistant controller of examination had presented the attested record which showed that Mr Gilani had appeared in the examination in 2005 but could not pass the subjects of Islamiyat and Pakistan Studies. The report concluded that the degree was doubtful although the MNA had appeared in the supplementary exams subsequently.

Mr Gilani alleged that Mr Asghar had exceeded his jurisdiction and acted without lawful authority, especially when he had not been nominated in the FIR registered about the Haj corruption case and his name had also not been mentioned in the charge sheet issued by the relevant court against former director general for Haj, Rao Shakeel Ahmed.

The petition alleged that bias of the investigating officer against the applicant was apparent from the fact that he had embarked upon the course of discrediting and maligning a member of the National Assembly by venturing into probing the validity of his graduation degree.

“This has nothing to do whatsoever with the mandate given to the IO by the apex court,” it said.

The petitioner said an impartial investigation could not be expected from the officer who had been suspended and transferred out of Islamabad by his father.

The petition referred to a report of the privileges committee of the National Assembly which had held on Dec 20 that the IO was bias and partial in the investigations against Mr Gilani.

After the privileges committee issued the report, the IO wrote a letter to the secretary of the Punjab Assembly on Dec 26, 2012, seeking record and details of benefits availed by Mr Gilani as a former MPA, the petition said, citing it as another instance of Mr Asghar’s partiality and bias against the legislator.

EX-PM’S PLEA: Meanwhile, the Supreme Court office has returned a petition submitted by Yousuf Raza Gilani for review of the June 19 order under which he had been disqualified from holding a seat in parliament for having committing contempt of the court.

The office raised objection that the normal procedure and rules for filing a petition had not been followed. Instead of filing it through his counsel, Mr Gilani had sent his petition by post.