ISLAMABAD (MNN); The Islamabad High Court on Thursday declared Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri disqualified after ruling that his academic degree was fake, rendering him ineligible to hold judicial office.
The verdict was announced after the completion of arguments in the degree verification case. Following the conclusion of submissions, the judges retired to their chambers, while court security was tightened ahead of the decision.
In its ruling, the court declared Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri’s degree bogus and held that he was not qualified for the post. The court further observed that, based on the impugned degree, he was not even eligible to be enrolled as a lawyer.
According to the Islamabad High Court decision, the objections earlier raised by Justice Jahangiri regarding the bench had already been dismissed. A day earlier, the court had ordered the registrar of Karachi University to appear on December 18 with the original record of the LLB degree.
In a written order issued earlier, the Islamabad High Court had stated that Justice Jahangiri’s objection alleging bias against the Chief Justice had no legal basis.
During the proceedings, Karachi University Registrar Imran Siddiqui informed the court that the university had finally cancelled Justice Tariq Jahangiri’s degree. The Islamic Law College also confirmed that Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri was never its student.
The registrar explained that Jahangiri had been caught cheating and barred for three years by the unfair means committee. Despite this, he allegedly used a fake enrolment form to appear in LLB Part-I under one name and LLB Part-II under another, a finding later confirmed by the authorities, leading to cancellation of the degree by the university syndicate.
However, Islamabad Bar Council member Raja Aleem Abbasi stated that the Sindh High Court had suspended the decision to cancel the degree. Advocate Mian Dawood argued that Justice Jahangiri had falsely sworn on the Holy Quran in court and challenged him to produce original marksheets.
The petition was heard by Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Muhammad Azam Khan on a writ of quo warranto. Justice Jahangiri did not appear in person and was represented by his counsel.
