PESHAWAR: Supreme Court stays by-polls for UC nazim
Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, May 5: A two-member bench of the Supreme Court here on Wednesday suspended an order of the Peshawar High Court and stayed bye-elections for a union nazim.
The bench comprising Justice Mian Muhammad Ajmal and Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan allowed a leave-to-appeal petition of Syed Iqbal Mehdi, nazim of the Ander Shehar union council. Mr Mehdi was disqualified by an election tribunal along with the naib nazim, and his disqualification was upheld by the high court.
The high court had on April 14 dismissed Mr Mehdi's writ petition against the tribunal's decision and ordered bye-elections on the vacant seat. The high court had ruled that the nazim and naib nazim were both elected as part of a panel and therefore, with the disqualification of one, the other would also stand disqualified.
The election tribunal had disqualified both Mr Mehdi and naib nazim Bunyad Hussain about a year ago on the grounds that the latter was not a matriculate, which was a pre-condition for contesting the local governments elections.
Barrister Masood Kausar appeared for the petitioner and argued that the petitioner would face irreparable loss if interim relief was not provided to him and bye-elections were held for electing the union nazim.
The counsel contended that the petitioner should not be penalized for the wrongs of his naib nazim. He said that bye-elections had already been held for naib nazim and there was no need for holding bye-elections for electing the nazim.
In the local governments elections in 2001, the panel of Mr Mehdi had defeated the rival panel of Muhammad Ali Safi. Mr Safi later filed a petition before an election tribunal, stating that the naib nazim had submitted forged documents and he was not a matriculate at the time of contesting the elections.
The election tribunal had accepted his petition and ordered bye-elections on both seats of nazim and naib-nazim.
