PESHAWAR, July 6: A bench of the Peshawar High Court on Wednesday requested the chief justice to constitute a special bench for hearing a contempt of court application against the NWFP chief minister.

The bench, comprising Justice Fazlur Rehman Khan and Justice Jehanzeb Rahim, referred to the chief justice a writ petition and two other applications filed by former Lakki Marwat tehsil nazim Faridullah Khan, who has been removed by the government.

The bench requested the chief justice to fix for next week the hearing of applications seeking suspension of the government order removing the nazim and initiating contempt of court proceedings against the chief minister and the provincial government.

The nazim had filed the petition after Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani suspended him on the recommendation of the NWFP Local Government Commission in April.

The court had admitted the petition to full hearing and had restrained the government from taking any further action against the petitioner.

However, four days ago, the government, on the directives of the chief minister, dismissed the nazim.

The petitioner’s counsel, Qazi Mohammad Anwer, stated that the government had committed contempt of court by violating its order.

He said when the three-month suspension period of the tehsil nazim was about to end, the chief minister removed the nazim in violation of the court order.

The bench observed that it would be appropriate to send the case to the bench which had issued the order restraining the government from taking action against the nazim.