PML-N member from National Assembly disqualified

The Supreme Court of Pakistan Monday disqualified Sumaira Malik as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) member of the National Assembly for holding a fake degree and directed the national Election Commission to take action against her.

A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, suspended the March 2008 notification announcing Malik elected to the National Assembly. She had then contested as the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) candidate from Khushab district of the Punjab province, the Dawn reported.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party member Malik Umar Aslam Awan, who lost to Malik in the 2013 National Assembly elections, filed a petition challenging her victory and alleged that the lawmaker, in order to avoid her ineligibility, had managed to obtain a fake Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Punjab.

These fake degree cases surfaced after former president Pervez Musharraf set graduation as the minimum qualification for the National Assembly membership in 2002.

The ordinance was promulgated at a time when Pakistan was under the military rule of Musharraf, who was exercising the powers of parliament. The law was later removed via the 18th Amendment to the Constitution in 2010.