PESHAWAR, Jan 18: The Peshawar High Court on Friday restored the Hangu District Nazim, Ghaniur Rehman, and remanded his case back to the election tribunal for deciding the case on merit.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Tallat Qayyum Qureshi and Justice Ghulam Mohiuddin Malik allowed a writ petition filed by Mr Rehman challenging his disqualification and declaration of his rival candidate, Haji Khan Afzal, as district nazim by the election tribunal.

The bench set aside the impugned order of the election tribunal and a subsequent notification issued by the chief election commissioner through which the rival candidate was notified as nazim.

“Without going into merit of the case, lest our observation may not prejudice the case of any party, we are of the view that the court below has not only failed to frame issue with regard to verification of the election petition, but has also not given any findings as to what would be the result of the petition has not been properly verified,” the court order states.

The court directed the election tribunal to strictly decide the case in accordance with law within a period of three months positively. The court also directed the two parties to appear before the tribunal on Jan 31.

In the absence of their lawyers due to boycott both Mr Rehman and Mr Afzal had to argue their case themselves.

The election tribunal presided over by Kohat district and sessions judge, Shahjehan Khan Akhundzada, had on Jan 3 accepted an election petition filed by Mr Afzal, and disqualified Mr Rehman from holding the office of district nazim. On Jan 5 the Chief Election Commissioner issued a notification whereby Mr Rehman was declared disqualified and Haji Khan Afzal was declared as district nazim.

The tribunal had ruled that the matriculation certificate produced by Mr Rehman in fact belonged to another person of the same name hailing from Karak district and not Hangu.

The petitioner stated that the election petition was not maintainable as it neither carried signatures nor was verified by Haji Khan Afzal.

He added that the presiding officer of the tribunal had not addressed that issue and some other issues and delivered the impugned judgment.

Mr Rehman stated that the Peshawar Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education had also conducted an independent inquiry in the matter which was in his favour.

He added that the person who according to the Mr Afzal was the real recipient of the certificate, Ghaniur Rehman son of Lal Pur, had himself appeared in the election petition and stated that he was illiterate and was a watchman at a school.