PESHAWAR, Sept 18: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Thursday declined to hear a writ petition challenging the showing of marked ballot papers by most of the members of the NWFP Assembly in the presidential polls as one of the member of the bench is member of the Election Commission.

When the bench comprising Justice Jehanzeb Raheem and Justice Ziauddin Khattak took up for preliminary hearing the writ petition, Justice Jehanzeb Raheem observed that he was member of the Election Commission of Pakistan and it was not appropriate for him to hear this petition.

The bench referred the petition to the chief justice for fixing it before another bench.

In the Election Commission, apart form the chief election commissioner there are four members, one from each province.

The petition was filed by the central deputy information secretary of Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Advocate Moazzam Butt, praying the court to declare the said polls in NWFP as unconstitutional and order fresh polling.

The petitioner stated that in the Sept 6 presidential elections most of the members showed their marked votes to other sitting members, which was violation of the Constitution and sanctity of the ballot.

The respondents in the petition are: Election Commission of Pakistan; NWFP Assembly presiding officer; President Asif Ali Zardari; Chief Justice (Retd) Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui; Mushahid Hussain Syed; PPP MPA Abdul Akbar Khan; Abdul Qayyum; provincial health minister Zahir Ali Shah; Zakirullah Khan; woman MPA Zarqa; Ziad Akram Khan Durrani; Ziauddin; secretary NWFP Assembly and the NWFP government.

The petitioner stated that under Articles 226 and 41 read with Clause 11 of the Second Schedule of the Constitution guaranteed that the election for the office of the president of the country should be through secret ballot by the members of the assembly.