GILGIT:
Khalid Khurshid Khan was removed from his position as chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan on Tuesday after the court found that he had obtained a licence from the bar council using a bogus degree.
The petition seeking the CM’s disqualification was heard by a three-judge bench presided over by Judge Inayatur Rahman, who issued the verdict.
Ghulam Shahzad Agha, a member of the G-B Assembly for the Pakistan Peoples Party, had contested Khurshid’s academic credentials through his lawyer, Amjad Hussain.
Khurshid also serves as the regional president of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution were used in the petition for his removal from office.
The petitioner claimed that the University of London could not confirm Khurshid’s degree and that the Higher Education Commission had deemed it to be bogus.
Chief Judge Ali Baig formed a bench to hear the case in May and gave the chief minister, HEC, G-B Bar Council, and others 14 days to respond to the notices they received.
After hearing the respondents’ arguments in full on Tuesday, the bench banned Khurshid for five years as prime minister.
A resolution of no confidence in the G-B Assembly’s current CM was submitted nearly immediately after his disqualification.
To counter the chief minister’s rumoured intention to dissolve the parliament, the opposition reportedly filed a resolution of no confidence.
Nine members, according to the sources, submitted the motion.
However, they also claimed that Khurshid was actively consulting with others on dissolving the assembly.
Advocate Hussain told the media after the hearing that Khurshid had presented a fake American degree from Axact to the G-B Bar Council in order to get licenced as a lawyer.
According to our sources, Khurshid is waiting for a more thorough verdict before appealing to the G-B Supreme Appellate Court.
To the party members, Khurshid said, “The next chief minister, whoever he will be, would also be of the PTI, as these people do not know that we are not greedy for the chair or power but want justice to prevail.”
