LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Monday disposed of a petition of Federal Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan and directed an anti-corruption court to conclude without delay proceedings questioning the veracity of a diploma he possessed.

A lawyer representing the minister told the court that the trial court had been delaying the proceedings for no reason while the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) had already filed a report for the cancellation of a case it lodged earlier on political consideration. He asked the court to issue a directive to the trial court to decide the matter at the earliest.

Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi disposed of the petition and directed the trial court to conclude the proceedings without delay.

On the last hearing, the ACE had told the high court that a diploma of Punjab Board of Technical Education possessed by the minister had been found genuine. It stated that allegations against the minister of having obtained a fake diploma had been found baseless during a thorough inquiry.

Minister Khan had filed the petition challenging the jurisdiction of the anti-corruption court to hear a case about his alleged fake graduation degree. He had alleged that the trial court was holding proceedings against him at the behest of the previous PML-N government.

Interestingly, the ACE in its earlier report filed before the trial court had declared the minister guilty and stated that his indictment had been delayed due to his non-appearance.

In 2012, the ACE had lodged the first information report against Khan and others under sections 420, 468, 471, 218, 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code and under Section 5(2) 47 Prevention of Corruption Act 1947 on charges of corruption and having a fake diploma from Punjab Board of Technical Education.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2019