Pak court removes one of its judges over invalid law degree

Islamabad, Dec 18 (PTI) Pakistan’s Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday sacked one of its judges over an “invalid” educational degree at the time of his appointment.

Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri was appointed as an IHC judge in September 2020, and the issue of his degree first came up in July last year when a lawyer, Mian Dawood, challenged the law degree he got from the University of Karachi (KU) in 1989.

A division bench led by Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Azam Khan announced the judgment, which was reserved earlier on Thursday, on a plea that challenged the legitimacy of Justice Jahangiri’s law degree and appointment as a judge.

According to the judgment, Jahangiri ceased to hold his office forthwith for “having an invalid law degree at the time of his appointment and confirmation as a judge”, and it directed the law ministry to denotify him as a judge.

It notes that “despite ample opportunities” the respondent “failed to submit a reply or produce valid educational credentials, compelling the court to proceed with the matter on the basis of the available record.

The bench announced its judgment a day after Jahangiri accused Chief Justice Dogar of being “biased” against him and requested the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) to set aside the recent IHC decision to hear a petition challenging his law degree.

Jahangri ran out of luck when KU Registrar Imran Siddiqui submitted the record before the court, stating that the university syndicate had cancelled the judge’s degree for having been “secured through unfair means”.

"Justice Jahangiri was found cheating and creating disturbance in an examination hall in 1988,” following which he was debarred from sitting an exam until 1992. However, instead of complying with the decision, the judge appeared in an exam in 1989 under a changed name, the registrar alleged.

Earlier, Jahangiri was among five judges who had opposed the appointment of threeo new judges, including Dogar, to the IHC earlier this year. PTI SH AMS