ISLAMABAD, Sept 23: The Supreme Court on Friday nullified the elections of nazim and naib nazim in Union Council 16, Goleki, Gujrat district after accepting the petition of a complainant, who was kept out of the local government elections by linking him with a banned sectarian outfit Lashkar-i-Tayyaba.

A three-member bench led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry also directed the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab Ziaul Hasan to take disciplinary action against DSP (Legal) Zul Qarnain, DSP Gujrat Arshad Mehmood and Sub-Inspector Manzoor Ahmed of Kinyah police station (Gujrat) and submit a compliance report to the court. The court will take up the matter after submission of the report.

Earlier, the court had suspended the election results of the constituency.

On Thursday, the bench sought evidence from the police to prove that the petitioner, Ehsanullah Prince, was a member of the banned outfit. An FIR was registered against the petitioner under Anti-Terrorist Act 1997 on the complaint of Sub-Inspector Manzoor Ahmed, who, according to the FIR, recovered visiting cards and letter pads of the banned outfit from Ehsanullah Prince’s office.

Ehsanullah Prince moved the Supreme Court against the rejection of his nomination papers by the district returning officer though his candidature was earlier accepted by the returning officer concerned on July 31. Following the rejection of his nomination papers, Safdar Mukhtar Sindhu was elected unopposed as nazim. On Friday, the bench reprimanded the police officials and asked them as to why they concocted links of the petitioner with the banned organization.

The bench asked them to disclose the source on whose information they had booked the candidate. The bench also suggested the police officers to seek the help of those to save their skin on whose direction they had fabricated an FIR against the petitioner.