PESHAWAR, Jan 23: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court ruled on Thursday that by-elections for filling a vacant seat of a union council Nazim should be held within 60 days of the occurrence of the vacancy.

The bench, comprising Justice Malik Hamid Saeed and Justice Shahjehan Khan, accepted two writ petitions and directed the Election Commission of Pakistan to conduct by-elections for the post of Nazims of two union councils, Pishtakhara and Khazana.

The bench ordered that a schedule for by-elections should be announced within a month and polls should be held within two months. The petitions were filed by Ishaq Khan Khalil and Mazharul Haq, both of whom were voters of union councils Pishtakhara and Khazana, respectively. The seats of these union Nazims had fallen vacant after the Nazims got killed in separate incidents.

The Nazim of Pishtakhara, Fayyaz Khalil, was killed during a protest demonstration against loadshedding in the area in 2002. The Khazana Nazim, Arbab Humayun, was allegedly killed by his rivals last year.

Khalid Khan Afridi and Zain Khan Khalil advocates appeared for the petitioners and argued that under section 156(1) of the NWFP Local Government Ordinance, 2001, the holding of by-elections after occurrence of vacancy of the Nazim was mandatory.

They added that under section 156(4), the vacancy of a union Nazim had to be filled within 60 days of the occurrence. The counsel argued that under the law an officiating Nazim had to be elected by the union council after occurrence of the vacancy of Nazim and he had to continue till election of a Nazim through by-elections. However, they added that the officiating Nazims had been performing in the said two union councils and by-elections had not been conducted for electing a permanent Nazim.