ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) sought the record of Justice Tariq Jahangiri’s law degree from Karachi University through the Higher Education Commission (HEC).
A two-member bench, comprising Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Muhammad Azam Khan, on Tuesday heard a petition filed against Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri for allegedly having a fake degree. Advocate Mian Dawood has challenged the LLB degree of Justice Jahangiri.
During the hearing, Justice Dogar said that they have sought the record from the HEC. The Islamabad Bar Association (IBA) also requested the court to become a party in the case. The court said that it will see the matter later. Petitioner Mian Dawood Advocate said that in this case, it is also mandatory to seek the record from the University of Karachi.
The IHC chief justice said that first they will seek records from the HEC because it is the central regulator. The court said that it has also appointed amicus curiae in this case. Barrister Zafarullah Khan said that he appeared as a judicial assistant in compliance with the court’s order.
The IHC deferred the hearing of the case for an indefinite period.
Earlier, the same IHC bench had restrained Justice Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri from performing judicial work over allegations of possessing a fake degree. Later, the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court set aside the IHC’s September 16 order that had restrained Justice Jahangiri from performing judicial work. The bench noted in its decision that the petition against Justice Jahangiri had initially faced objections from the Supreme Court Registrar’s Office. It directed the IHC to first decide on those objections before moving ahead with the writ petition.
In his petition, the petitioner Mian Dawood challenged Justice Jahangiri’s appointment under Article 199 of the Constitution through a writ of quo warranto. The writ of quo warranto is primarily based on the 1998 Supreme Court judgment in the Justice Sajjad Ali Shah case.
The petition claimed that Justice Jahangiri’s appointment is unconstitutional due to an allegedly invalid degree and requested that his appointment be declared null and void. The petitioner also requested a probe into his “fake law degree”, as he contended in the petition that the law degree by which Justice Jahangiri got qualified for his professional responsibility was ‘fake’.
According to the writ petition, there is concrete evidence that Justice Jahangiri’s degree was fake, as he was attaching documents and evidence of forgery. He urged the court for a complete probe of the matter from the concerned authorities, as he further contended that the fake degree issue was undermining the integrity of the judiciary. The petitioner sought judicial intervention to deal with counterfeiting and its consequences.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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