ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday upheld the decision by an election tribunal regarding disqualification of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker in the National Assembly Muhammad Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry for holding a bogus degree
.
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali announced the verdict in Islamabad on Tuesday.
In its verdict, the bench ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct re-election in NA-108 Mandi Bahauddin, a constituency from where Ijaz Chaudhry was elected as an independent MNA as a result of May 2013 general elections.
His eligibility was challenged by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Mumtaz Ahmed Tarar, maintaining the stance that Chaudhry possessed a fake degree.
Subsequently, the election tribunal declared Ijaz Chaudhry ineligible upon which he had approached the Supreme Court regarding the matter.
But in its decision issued on Tuesday, the apex court upheld the election tribunal’s verdict.
Ijaz Chaudhry joined the PML-N after becoming member of the National Assembly. But in November last year, he left the PML-N and joined hands with the PTI.
