MNA Disqualified

Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday declared PML-N MNA Khadim Hussain Watto ineligible for having fake degree, Geo News reported. Khadim Hussain was elected Member National Assembly (MNA) on PML-N ticket from  Bahawalpur. LHC passed the judgement on a petition filed in August 2010 by Mr. Nawaz Cheema who had  contended that Muhammad Akhter Khadim alias Khadim Hussain Wattoo had always cheated election commission by submitting bogus degrees and adopting dishonest practices in elections from 1985 to 2008.

The MNA has been unseated at a time when the NA itself has been dissolved for completing its tenure. One wonders if the NA had still some more life the ‘honourable’ MNA would have kept enjoying his untouchable status and stature! Anyway, now the question arises that would the salaries and various other expenses incurred on the perks and privileges of the ‘honourable’ member  of most august house of the country for the period that he was its mighty member be recovered from him with interest or not?  Not only that, the matter of one’s proffering a fake and false degree without having honestly passed a certain examination is not an ordinary act of perjury!!  It is a well thought out and planned premeditated crime and committed willfully and with the full knowledge of its perpetrator. Such a scourge of the society must not be left lightly.  He must be punished severely to the utmost and made a horrible example to act as a deterre nt for the others.

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)