Election matter of fake degree holder: Supreme Court tells PML-N ex-MP to return all salaries, allowances

Putting a question mark on the 'dead conscience' of fake degree holder MPs motivation to safeguard legitimate interest of the people, the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed Haji Nasir Mehmood, former member Punjab Assembly (PP-111 Gujrat) from PML-N to return all the salary and allowances received as a member so far in two weeks, saying criminal wastage of taxpayer's money cannot be allowed.
"Nothing good cannot be expected from such imitators," it said after coming to know that Mehmood had contested the election on the basis of a bogus degree, and directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to initiate criminal proceedings against Haji Nasir Mehmood so that such shameful instances could not be repeated. The court issued these directions in a detailed judgement pertaining to election matter of the aforesaid constituency wherein educational credentials of Haji Nasir Mehmood were challenged by Mian Imran Masood.
Authored by Justice Javed Iqbal, the judgement said, "In such circumstances how a visionary leadership could emerge. The matter at hand is more fundamental and involved a crucial issue of trust. Nothing good can be expected from such imitators who not only betrayed the confidence of the voters of their Constituencies but cheated them in a shameless manner. How can they watch the legitimate interest of people with a dead conscience which never pricked while defrauding the nation."
The judgement said that "they deserve exemplary punishment so that such shameful instances could not be repeated. The Election Commission of Pakistan shall initiate criminal proceedings against the appellant under intimation to this Court." "The appellant is further directed to return all salaries and allowances received as a member within two weeks and in case of failure, it shall be recovered as arrears of land revenue.
The criminal wastage of taxpayer's money cannot be allowed. The burden to prove a valid, genuine and bona fide qualification lies on the appellant which in this case could not be discharged," added the order.
Haji Nasir Mehmood had attained a degree from a university of East Hyderabad on the basis of which he contested general elections of 2008. Having gone through the record and input of Higher Education Commission (HEC) the court held that, "...it can be concluded safely that the degree of University of East Hyderabad cannot be considered as a recognised one for the reasons as mentioned in the preceding paragraphs. It is worth mentioning that University of East Hyderabad was established on 28.7.2004 but amazingly the certificates relating to 2003 (spring semester) and 2003 (summer semester) were issued when in fact the University was not established which speaks volumes about the negative approach of the University.
In the wake of these events it has been noted that Haji Nasir Mehmood (appellant) was awarded the degree in March 2006 when the tenure of its course/semester was to be completed and the semester, as per record, should have been convened in March 2003. Even on this score the degree issued cannot be declared as valid.
At the cost of repetition we may mention here that the degree (Exh.DA) was attested on 12.9.2008 but it carries no weight as it could have only been attested on the basis of record which was not made available on baseless excuses. We have no hesitation in our mind that the degree (Exh.DA) produced by the appellant with the nomination papers was not recognised by the Higher Education Commission and accordingly it cannot be equated to that of a valid degree and therefore, he was not qualified under the law to contest the election due to lack of requisite qualifications."
Haji Nasir Mehmood had challenged the decision of Lahore High Court's Election Tribunal of February 3, 2010 wherein he was declared disqualified and ECP was directed to conduct fresh election in the constituency. Earlier, on March 4, the court had reserved the judgement and after having examined the relevant record in question, a three-member bench comprising Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali and Justice Tariq Parvez dismissed the appeal against the LHC decision.