PESHAWAR, Feb 14: A Supreme Court (SC) division bench here on Friday granted interim relief to the disqualified Swabi Nazim and allowed him to continue as district Nazim.

Nazim Sher Zaman Sher had filed a leave-to-appeal petition challenging his disqualification by an election tribunal in November last and upholding of the tribunal’s verdict by the Peshawar High Court. He had also sought the interim relief from the SC till the disposal of his plea.

The bench, comprising Justice Mian Muhammad Ajmal and Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan, directed that the petitioner should continue to hold the office till a decision on his plea.

The election tribunal had disqualified Mr Sher for allegedly producing a fake matriculation certificate at the time of contesting the local governments elections in 2001. Later, on Feb 6, the high court upheld the decision of the tribunal and dismissed his plea challenging the disqualification.

Advocate Muhammad Jamil appeared for the petitioner and argued that if interim relief was not granted to his client, he might suffer irreparable loss.

A rival candidate, Jehanzeb Khan, had claimed that according to record of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, he was declared failed in English and General Science.