GILGIT BALTISTAN: A senior Civil Judge has issued an arrest warrant for Khalid Khurshid Khan, the former chief minister (CM) of Gilgit-Baltistan in a fake degree case, according to ARY News.

The senior Civil Judge, Hidayat Ali, issued a bailable arrest order for the former Gilgit-Baltistan chief minister due to his repeated absences.

In order to obtain an equivalency certificate from the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Islamabad, Khalid Khurshid--who was also the president of the Gilgit-Baltistan branch of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)--was accused of obtaining a lawyer's licence from the Gilgit-Baltistan Bar Council by submitting an affidavit and a "fictitious" law degree from the University of London, according to ARY News report.

A three-member bench of the Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Court rendered a decision in July 2023 regarding a petition brought up by Shahzad Agha, a member of the GB Assembly, disqualifying Khalid Khursheed Khan in a fake degree case, the report said.

The petitioner had claimed that Khursheed ought to be disqualified in accordance with Articles 62 and 63 since his law degree was a forgery.

Although Khurshid claimed to have graduated from London with a legal degree, this could not be confirmed, according to ARY News.

Khalid Khursheed had been in office since December 2020 and is considered a close aide of PTI chairman Imran Khan.