PESHAWAR, April 30: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday upheld disqualification of two former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa lawmakers and dismissed pleas against several former members of the provincial assembly.

A four-member bench headed by Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan dismissed a petition filed by former MPA Malik Imran against the rejection of his nomination papers by the returning officer for PK-75, Lakki Marwat and the subsequent upholding of the same order by an election appellate tribunal.

His nomination papers were rejected on the ground that he was earlier disqualified by the Peshawar High Court for possessing a forged degree and that the judgment was upheld by the Supreme Court.

The petitioner said the Supreme Court had dismissed his appeal due to non-prosecution and that since the condition of graduation was no longer applicable in the elections, he should be permitted to contest polls.

The bench observed that it had examined the record and the orders of the returning officer and the tribunal but didn’t find any illegality in those orders.

It also dismissed a petition of former MPA from Swabi, Sardar Ali, whose nomination papers were rejected by the returning officer for possessing a fake graduation degree and his subsequent conviction by a court and the sentence of three years imprisonment.

The petitioner’s lawyer said his client’s conviction was suspended by the high court and was released on bail.

He said his client’s conviction was no longer applicable and therefore, on that ground, he could not be disqualified.

The bench ruled that under the Constitution, once a person was sentenced to more than two years of imprisonment, he stood disqualified from becoming a lawmaker.

The petition of a PPP candidate, Kifayatullah Khan, against former provincial minister Syed Aqil Shah was dismissed by the bench.

The petitioner said papers of Mr Shah were rejected by the returning officer as he was convicted for possessing a fake graduation degree and was sentenced to one-year imprisonment for corrupt practices. He, however, said the appellate tribunal set aside that order.

The petitioner’s lawyer, Qazi Jawad Ahsanullah, said the Higher Education Commission and the Election Commission of Pakistan had declared that the degree submitted by Mr Shah in the 2008 elections was fake and that the Supreme Court in a related judgment clearly pronounced that a person submitting a forged or fake degree could not be declared righteous and honest.

The bench ruled that Mr Shah was convicted for less than two years imprisonment and therefore, he could contest elections under the Constitution.

Moreover, the bench dismissed two petitions of independent candidate Farooq Shah challenging candidature of former chief minister Pir Sabir Shah and ex-MPA Faisal Zaman for PK-52, Haripur.