PESHAWAR, July 13: The NWFP chief minister Akram Khan Durrani and three others were put on notice by the Peshawar High Court in a contempt of court petition.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Ijaz Afzal and Justice Raj Muhammad Khan also suspended an order of the chief minister, removing the tehsil nazim of Lakki Marwat, Fareedullah Khan, from his post on July 3. The bench directed that the contempt case should be separated from the main writ petition and should be treated as an independent case.

The three other alleged contemners included the provincial secretary local government, Hamad Awais Agha, who is also secretary of the NWFP local government commission, and two members of the commission, Jalaluddin Khan and Sardar Anwer Khan.

The four respondents, including the chief minister, are charged with violating an interim order of the court, which restrained the government and local government commission from taking any adverse action against Fareedullah. An inquiry was launched against the tehsil nazim by the commission on March 11 and was suspended by the chief minister on April 5.

Mr Fareedullah had filed a writ petition before the high court challenging his suspension and the launching of an inquiry against him by the local government commission.

Subsequently, the court had issued interim orders on June 8 and 13 through which the respondents were restrained from taking any adverse action against the tehsil nazim.

Later, when the case was taken up for hearing on June 20 the bench announced that the interim relief would continue. However, in its written order the bench did not mention the interim order. While the case was again fixed for July 6, the government issued the removal order of the nazim on July 3. The petitioner filed a contempt of court application against the chief minister and three others requesting the court to take action against them for violating the court orders.