September 20, 2006	Wednesday	Sha'aban 26, 1427

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PESHAWAR, Sept 19: Peshawar High Court on Tuesday restrained the Election Commission of Pakistan from taking any action regarding the Dera Ismail Khan district Nazim seat which fell vacant with the removal of the elected nazim, Mukhtar Ahmad Khan, a few days ago.

The ousted Nazim has filed a writ petition before the high court challenging his removal through a motion of no-confidence on the ground that the MMA provincial government had forced the council member to give written undertakings wherein they had pledged that their wives would stand divorced if they voted in favour of Mr Mukhtar.

The petitioner has also produced an undertaking of one of the members in which he had pledged to vote against Mr Mukhtar, otherwise his wife would stand divorced.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Qaim Jan Khan and Justice Fazlur Rehman Khan put on notice the election commission, the provincial secretary local government and the district naib nazim Abdur Rasheed Dhab, who is presently acting nazim.

The petitioner’s counsel, Qazi Mohammad Anwer, requested the court to stay further proceedings on either electing district nazim or officiating nazim against the vacant seat.

Mr Mukhtar, brother of Senator Gulzar Ahmad and uncle of two other senators Waqar and Amar, was elected district nazim last year after he defeated Maulana Obaidur Rehman, brother of opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

He alleged that another brother of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Lutfur Rehman, who is an MPA, had influenced the members and received written undertakings from the members during the no- confidence move. About 45 of the total 66 members of the council had voted against the petitioner.

Advocate Qazi Mohammad Anwer argued that the members had voted on the motion of no-confidence on Sept 11 under duress. He questioned how could wives of the members be divorced in case the members did not vote in favour of MMA. Mr Anwer produced a copy of an undertaking given on Aug 5 by a union nazim/district council member, Mohammad Iqbal, wherein he swore that he would vote in favour of MMA and against the nazim. The member further wrote thrice that his wife would stand divorced if he did not vote against the nazim. He added that the member later on opposed the no-confidence motion.

The counsel produced a copy of a local newspaper Sadai Haq stating that an interview was given by Lutfur Rehman to the said paper in which he had stated that the members had sworn that their wives would be divorced thrice if they voted against the motion. Mr Anwer said that Lutfur Rehman further stated in the interview that the nikkah between Iqbal and his wife had become void as she stood divorced after Iqbal violated his oath.