LAHORE Justice Nasim Sikandar of Lahore High Court cleared for hearing on Monday a petition seeking disqualification as MNA of Abid Sher Ali who heads the National Assembly's Standing Committee for Education.

Petitioner Advocate Aftab Ahmed has alleged that Mr Ali was elected on the basis of a forged degree and requested the court to ask the Election Commisson to hold an inquiry. He has also sought an injunction restraining Mr Ali from functioning as a member of the assembly till the decision on the petition.

Last week, the LHC registrar's office had put three objections and said the petition should have been filed in the Islamabad High Court because the petitioner had made the Election Commission respondent, he had not delivered copies of the petition to the offices of the Punjab advocate-general and the attorney-general and had not attached the required documents to the petition.

The petitioner argued that Mr Ali had become an MNA from Faisalabad which was in the jurisdiction of the LHC. He said the petition's copies had been delivered to the offices of the advocate-general and the attorney-general and he would submit a certified copy of the graduation degree.

Justice Sikandar overruled the objections and directed the registrar's office to place the petition before a judge for hearing.

The petitioner named Mr Ali, speaker of the National Assembly, the Election Commission and the Punjab chief secretary as respondents.

Mr Ali is pursuing a probe by the house committee into allegations that Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar used his influence to get his daughter's marks increased in the intermediate exams.