09 May 2004	Sunday	18 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

PESHAWAR, May 8: An election tribunal here on Saturday disqualified the nazim and naib nazim of Union Council Haryana (Peshawar) and ordered by-elections on the vacant seats.

The Charssada district and sessions judge, Mrs Irshad Qaiser, who is presiding officer of the tribunal, accepted an election petition filed against the nazim, Tehmash Khan, and naib nazim, Jawed Iqbal, by a rival candidate, Gohar Ali Afridi.

The tribunal ruled that the nazim had tampered with his matric certificate for enhancing his age so that he could qualify for contesting the polls.

Under the Local Government Elections Ordinance 2000, it was mandatory for the candidates to be more than 25 years of age.

Initially, the nomination papers of the panel of Tehmash Khan and Jawed Iqbal had been rejected on the same ground. However, their appeals were accepted by the appellate authority, and they were allowed to contest polls.

They won the polls in 2001, but the result was challenged before the election tribunal by the rival candidate.

Syed Walayat Ali Shah Bukhari appeared for the petitioner and contended that the nazim had committed fraud by tampering with his matric certificate.

He added that the evidence on record proved that he had tampered the said document so as to increase his age. He added that his year of birth was in fact 1977 whereas he tampered it in the certificate and made it 1975.