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Educational qualifications of MMA legislators challenged

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD June 14. Leading lights of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) find themselves in an unenviable position as the Pakistani Supreme Court admitted a constitutional petition challenging the educational qualifications of 65 MMA legislators, and issued notices to top leaders of the alliance. Just before the October general election, the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, had made graduation as the minimum qualification to contest election for the National and Provincial Assemblies. As a result, a number of veteran politicians found themselves out of the electoral race.

The Election Commission, however, had held that the equivalent of degrees given by Deen Madaris would be considered on par with degrees awarded by universities. The move facilitated members of religious parties to contest the elections.

The petitioner is seeking disqualification of the MMA members on the grounds that their sanads issued by Tanzeemul Madaris were not equivalent to BA degrees. According to the petition, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani, Maulana Samiul Haq, Hafiz Hussain Ahmad and Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri are prominent among those who are not qualified to become members of assemblies. The petitioner said the UGC had recognised the sanad of Shahadat Alimiya fil Arabia as equivalent to MA Islamiat only for teaching purpose and nothing else. The petitioner, is also challenging the Election Commission ruling that the degrees obtained by the MMA leaders from Madaris were valid to contest elections.

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