By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission has endorsed a university’s conclusion that a sitting judge on the Islamabad High Court obtained his law degree through unfair means, according to a detailed report submitted to the court, intensifying scrutiny over the jurist’s eligibility to hold office.
The commission’s report, filed in response to a judicial directive, confirmed findings by Karachi University that Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri’s LLB degree involved glaring discrepancies, including multiple enrollment numbers and conflicting identities. However, the commission emphasised that it had never verified the degree and that the judge had not approached it for such verification at any stage.
The submission came amid a contentious legal battle over Justice Jahangiri’s qualifications, prompted by a petition challenging his appointment. A division bench of the Islamabad High Court, comprising Chief Justice Sardar Mohammad Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Mohammad Azam Khan, had ordered the Higher Education Commission to provide the judge’s complete academic record as part of proceedings on the petition’s maintainability.
During a recent hearing, the court was urged to summon the original academic records directly from Karachi University, which had previously cancelled the judge’s LLB degree, a decision later suspended by the Sindh High Court. Chief Justice Dogar observed that the matter involved a serious allegation and must be examined strictly on the basis of the record. Since the Higher Education Commission is the regulatory authority for all universities in Pakistan, the bench would first evaluate the commission’s report before deciding whether Karachi University should be issued a notice, he remarked.
In its report, the commission enclosed Karachi University’s inquiry, which detailed inconsistencies in the judge’s records. It stated that a candidate named “Tariq Mehmood” obtained an LLB degree in 1991 under enrollment number 5968, but records showed that another student, Imtiaz Ahmed, had been enrolled under the same number in 1987, while the transcript for LLB Part-I was issued in the name of “Tariq Jahangiri.” The report further noted that the judge had enrolled for LLB Part-I under a second enrollment number, 7124 — a violation of the university’s rules, which permit only one enrollment number for the entire duration of a degree program.
While the inquiry committee stopped short of labelling the degree as “bogus,” it declared the credentials invalid on account of multiple identities and conflicting enrollment records. Karachi University alleged that the judge “used and appeared in LLB examinations on false identities having different enrollment numbers of Karachi University in collusion with university staff.” It further stated that he had “personified different other regular/ex-regular students of Islamia College, i.e., Mohammad Naeemuddin, son of Mohammad Moinuddin, and Imtiaz Ahmed.”
As a consequence, the university declared the candidate guilty of using unfair means, cancelled the result, and imposed a three-year ban, allowing him to reappear in examinations in 1992. The case has unfolded against a backdrop of procedural disputes and higher judicial intervention. On Sept. 16, the same Islamabad High Court division bench took up the petition and issued an interim order restraining Justice Jahangiri from performing judicial functions until the maintainability of the petition could be decided. The decision, made without issuing prior notice to the judge, sparked debate within the legal community over whether a high court could suspend a sitting judge through an interim order.
Thirteen days later, on Sept. 29, the Supreme Court intervened and set aside the restraining order. A five-member constitutional bench, headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan, held that a high court could not bar a judge from performing judicial functions while hearing a quo warranto petition. The ruling clarified that it addressed only the legality of the interim order and not the merits of the allegations. The Supreme Court later directed the Islamabad High Court to decide all preliminary objections and proceed with the matter in accordance with law.
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