PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday set aside the conviction of former lawmakers Syed Aqil Shah and Sardar Ali by trial courts and acquitted them in cases of the production of the alleged fake degrees for contesting the 2008 general elections.

Justice Roohul Amin Khan Chamkani and Justice Abdul Shakoor Khan accepted criminal appeals filed by former provincial minister Syed Aqil Shah and former MPA Sardar Ali, who had challenged their respective convictions by trial courts for possessing fake degrees of graduation.

The bench ruled that the prosecution failed to prove its case against the two appellants.

Trial courts had sentenced Aqil Shah and Sardar Ali

Both appellants were arrested following their conviction. However, the high court granted them bail on Apr 8, 2013. Their appeals remained pending since then.

Mr Shah, a leader of Awami National Party, was convicted by the Peshawar district and sessions judge on April 4, 2013, and was sentenced to one-year imprisonment along with a fine of Rs3,000.

He was convicted on the complaint of the regional election commissioner and was sentenced under Section 82 of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1976, for commission of corrupt practices by submitting fake graduation degree during the 2008 general elections.

Sardar Ali, who was elected as an independent MPA from Swabi in 2008 elections, was convicted by an additional district and sessions judge on March 30, 2013. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment and was fined Rs5,000.

He had submitted along with his nomination papers the copy of a graduation degree as a precondition for contesting polls. However, it transpired later that the degree was fake.

Advocate Aamir Javed represented Mr Shah, while Abdul Lateef Afridi defended Sardar Ali.

Aamir Javed said the regional election commissioner had complained that his client’s bachelor’s degree issued by the University of Punjab on Oct 15, 2002, was found be fake by the Higher Education Commission on Aug 5, 2010.

He said his client had claimed that he had never submitted the controversial degree and instead, he had submitted a BBA degree from the American International College, Lahore.

Mr Javed said the trial of Mr Shah was void as it was conducted on the basis of a complaint, which the regional commissioner was not authorised to file.

He added that the Election Commission of Pakistan meant its five members or majority of them. The lawyer said the letter sent by the ECP to the regional election commissioner to file the complaint was illegal as it did not carried signatures of majority of the ECP members.

He added that the letter was sent by a section officer of the commission.

The lawyer said the entire trial was conducted on the basis of photocopies of certain documents, which were not produced in original and were not properly verified.

Lateef Afridi said his client didn’t have a fair trial and that a person could not be condemned merely on the basis of rumours and hearsay.

He said the relevant documents were not verified and that a person could not be convicted on the basis of such documents.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2019