Safdar Degree Campaign escalates from a long-running land dispute in Mansehra into a national controversy just as the Supreme Court Bar Association elections heat up. Capt (retd) Muhammad Safdar, husband of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, has launched a strong drive against what he calls fake degrees in the legal community. He is demanding that Syed Amjad Ali Shah be replaced as the presidential candidate of the Independent Group.
The roots of this clash go back five years. Safdar’s father bought a 10-kanal plot in Dara village in 1997 and later gifted it to his son. The land sits next to a much larger holding owned by the family of former Supreme Court judge Ejaz Afzal Khan. Both sides claim rights over the valuable front portion and nearby communal land. In April 2021, the judge’s family filed a case in the Peshawar High Court. They accused Safdar and his brothers of entering the joint property with armed men, leveling the ground, and building a boundary wall.
Safdar’s side hit back. His brother, then-MNA Sajjad Awan, claimed that guards linked to the judge’s family opened fire while the wall was being built. Police first refused to register an FIR. Only after the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Law intervened did they act. The Mansehra District Bar Association quickly passed a resolution against the FIR and even observed a strike. The high court later stayed proceedings against the judge’s family. A separate case over alleged illegal possession is still pending in the district court, and no final decision has been given yet.
Syed Amjad Ali Shah comes from the same area and is widely seen as close to Justice Ejaz. Safdar believes Amjad supported the other side during the land fight. Amjad denies this and says he once refused to take Safdar’s case because he did not want to get involved. Questions about Amjad’s law degree first appeared in 2022 when he contested for Pakistan Bar Council membership. Court records at that time showed he passed his LLB from Punjab University. The issue has returned now that he is running for the top post in the SCBA.
Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar, who also belongs to the Independent Group, has tried to settle the matter through several jirgas, including one involving the National Assembly Speaker and another through Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Safdar has refused to step back. He claims his father was insulted by local bar members and insists Amjad must be replaced. Senior lawyer Ahsan Bhoon, a strong supporter of Amjad, has also come under fire. Safdar has raised doubts about Bhoon’s degree as well. Bhoon has denied the charges and sent a defamation notice seeking Rs5 billion in damages, stating his LLB from Punjab University was verified earlier this year.
The personal land fight has now grown into a wider campaign that is shaking the legal community at a critical time.
