MUZAFFARABAD: A single member bench of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) High Court on Thursday refrained the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and others concerned from conducting elections on four seats in the AJK Council till further orders.

Justice Sadaqat Hussein Raja adjourned the hearing till May 23, while the polling, in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of a single transferrable vote, was scheduled for May 15.

The bench passed an interim order after admitting a writ petition for regular hearing, which was filed by Mohammad Saghir Khan against the acceptance of Amjad Jalil’s nomination papers for the election.

Both Mr Khan and Mr Jalil had submitted their nominations as PPP candidates. While the former is said to be enjoying the blessings of AJK President Sardar Mohammad Yaqoob Khan and information minister Sardar Abid Hussein Abid, the later is reported to be backed by health minister Sardar Qamuruz Zaman and electricity minister Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore.

In his petition, Mr Khan had maintained that according to section 11 (5) of the AJK Council Election Act 1976, only those persons were eligible for candidature whose names were included in voter lists.

However, since Mr Jalil’s name did not figure in the 2011 voters list, the acceptance of his nomination papers by the returning officer was against the law and liable to be rejected.

He alleged that the returning officer had raised an order for the correction of the voters list under political pressure.

The counsel for Mr Jalil maintained that the official respondents had not committed an illegality by accepting Amjad Jalil’s nomination papers.

According to the counsel, the names of Amjad Jalil and his family were included in the voter’s lists for 2006 polls but were missing from the 2011 list, which was a clerical mistake on the part of the official respondents and that Mr Jalil could not be penalised for the mistake.

Justice Raja then announced the admission of the petition for a regular hearing in order to determine if Mr Jalil was entitled to contest the election in accordance with the rules and law, whether previous voter’s lists could be rectified or amended by the registration officer after the issuance of the schedule for the AJK Council elections and if the nomination papers filed by Amjad Jalil could be accepted without notifying the amended list.

He directed the respondents to file written statements and other relevant documents on or before May 23.

Referring to the process for elections to the Council, Justice Raja observed that in case interim relief was not granted to the petitioner, it would affect his rights and the whole Council elections besides creating hurdles in the future.

“Keeping in view the overall circumstances of the case, respondents are directed to maintain status quo till further orders, subject to objections from the other side,” he declared.

On May 2, a larger bench of the High Court had dismissed a petition by two PML-N lawmakers, whereby they had sought cancellation of the AJK Council polls on the grounds that since the term of the sitting Legislative Assembly was expiring within two and a half months it should not be allowed to elect four members for next five years.

The judgment was upheld by the AJK Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, sources in the AJK Election Commission (EC) told Dawn that out of the 15 candidates for the Council elections, four had withdrawn their nominations on Thursday, one of whom belongs to the Muslim Conference (MC) and the rest to PML-N.

Those who had not withdrawn their nominations include seven candidates from PPP, two from PML-N, and one each from MC and PTI.

The final list of candidates was to be displayed on Friday, but EC sources said the whole process was likely to be frozen until May 23 in the wake of Thursday’s decision.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2016