HARIPUR: The Abbottabad circuit bench of the Peshawar High Court on Thursday barred the Provincial Election Commission, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, from de-notifying Haripur district nazim, Adil Islam, till decision on his petition and asked the secretary district council for producing diary register on Jan 30.

The writ petition was filed to challenge the removal of Mr Islam as district nazim through a vote of no-confidence.

According to advocate Junaid Anwar, counsel for the petitioner Adil Islam, after hearing arguments from both sides the two-member bench in its short order barred the Provincial Election Commission from de-notifying the petitioner till further orders and asked the district council secretary to appear before the court with diary register of the council on Jan 30.

In the 68-member house 56 councillors had voted in favour of the no-confidence motion against Mr Islam on January 14. Both the PTI and PML-N members had joined hands for removing the nazim, accusing him of corruption and mismanagement.

However Mr Islam rejected the allegations and termed the no-trust motion against bylaws of the council. The council also elected Raja Nasir Kiyani as officiating district nazim on Jan 17.

LAND RETRIEVED: The tehsil administration here the other day retrieved 12 kanals of state land from a resident in Khanpur tehsil, said Qasim Shah, a spokesperson for the deputy commissioner, Haripur.

He said that Riasat, a resident of Pind Gakhra village, illegally occupied the land, which was allocated for graveyard, and had developed an orange orchard there.

Mr Shah said that when it was proved from the revenue record that the 12-kanal land was state land and earmarked for a graveyard, the illegal occupant was served a notice, asking him to vacate the land voluntarily.

However, he refused to follow the warning, forcing the tehsil administration to take over the orchard. Assistant commissioner, Khanpur, Gul Bano led the operation conducted by the TMA officials and police.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2019