F.P. Report
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has disqualified Member of National Assembly (MNA) Jamshed Dasti after declaring his academic credentials fake.
According to the private channel, the verdict was announced on the basis of a reference sent by the Speaker of the National Assembly on Tuesday.
In its reserved decision, the ECP approved two petitions that challenged the legitimacy of Dasti’s academic documents and ruled against him, bringing his latest political chapter to a sudden halt.
Jamshed Dasti, a controversial political figure, won his most recent seat in the 2024 general election from NA-175 Muzaffargarh-I as an independent candidate endorsed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), securing over 113,000 votes. However, this is not the first time Dasti has faced such a crisis.
In 2010, he resigned from the National Assembly after it was revealed that his bachelor’s degree was fake. He was later re-elected in a by-election. In 2013, he was sentenced to three years in prison for the same charge but had his conviction overturned by the Lahore High Court just in time to contest the general elections.
Throughout his career, Dasti has switched party affiliations multiple times, moving from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), forming his own Awami Raj Party, and eventually joining PTI in 2023.
His political career has been marred by controversies, including criminal accusations and arrests. In 2015, he was nominated in a murder case, and in 2017, arrested for forcibly opening a water canal in his constituency.
With his disqualification now official, Jamshed Dasti once again finds himself on the sidelines, raising questions about candidate vetting and the loopholes in Pakistan’s electoral system.
