PESHAWAR, Nov 22: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday sought record from district Lower Dir’s returning officer in a dispute relating to the election of district nazim.

A two-member bench of the court, comprising Justice Shehzad Akbar and Justice Ejaz Afzal, was informed during proceedings that the relevant record had yet not reached the court.

The bench issued directives to the returning officer to positively produce the record on next hearing.

The bench was hearing two writ petitions filed by rival candidates, Mohammad Rasool, who enjoyed support of the Jamaat-i- Islami-backed Al-Khidmat group, and Ahmad Hassan Khan, a former provincial minister and leader of People’s Party Parliamentarians.

Due to the dispute, the district Lower Dir has been without a nazim since the elections were conducted on Oct 6.

The returning officer had announced a tie between the two candidates and decided to hold a draw between them on toss of a coin in accordance with Rule 37 of the NWFP Local Government Elections, 2005 under Rules, 2005.

Both the candidates have challenged some of the votes of each other and requested the court to declare them as elected nazim of the district.

Advocate Muzamil Khan appeared for Muhammad Rasool, whereas Aamir Jawed represented Ahmad Hassan.

The petitioner Mohammad Rasool has challenged two votes of Ahmad Hassan, stating that those were invalid or rejected votes but the returning officer counted the same in favour of Ahmad Hassan.

He stated that he they had objected against three votes of Ahmad Hassan, which were invalid and were separated by the presiding officer. He added that in the initial counting the petitioner had lead of two votes against Mr Hassan. He added that the returning officer picked one of the vote which was invalid on the ground of double-stamping as the voter had put the stamp on the symbol as well as on the name.

He contended that under Rule 35 of the Local Government Elections Rules 2005 the vote should be considered invalid if there was any other mark on the ballot paper except the stamp put in the space meant for it.

He added that another invalid vote was sent to the provincial election commission for opinion, which observed that the same was invalid. However, the returning officer, he added, considered the third rejected vote and counted it in favour of Mr Hassan, thus making the result a tie between the two candidates.

Ahmad Hassan has also challenged certain votes of Mohammad Rasool on almost the same grounds.