KARACHI, Feb 9: The Sindh High Court asked the provincial election authority on Wednesday to arrange a final vote on the internal recall motion against the Sanghar district nazim Roshan Din Junejo without further delay.

A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad and Justice Maqbool Baqar, upheld the proceedings taken so far on the recall motion commencing from its initiation and culminating in its approval by the district assembly (district council). The proceedings were lawful and in accordance with an earlier high court order in the matter, the bench observed.

The petition was moved by union council nazim Shahid Thaheem of UC Manik Thaheem, Taluka Tando Adam, District Sanghar, through Advocate Kamaluddin Azfar. The petitioner, son of former PPP provincial minister, Abdus Salam Thaheem, was the mover of the recall motion.

The recall motion was tabled in the district assembly at the end of May 2004. It was presented to the assembly and claimed to have been approved by it by a majority in June 2004. Nazim Junejo, however, challenged the proceedings on the ground that he had no notice of the motion and he was on leave of absence at Dubai when it was tabled and voted upon by the zila council.

Under the law and rules, he said, he had a right to know the allegations against him and also had the right to defend himself. The procedure was otherwise faulty, he said.

A division bench ordered that the petitioner be heard and the assembly should vote on the motion after hearing him. The assembly was convened in accordance with the order of the court and it voted again in favour of the motion.

The final stage in the recall procedure is a vote by the entire electoral college that elected the nazim and deputy nazim in the first stance. The ballot is to be arranged by the provincial election authority. The electoral college consists of all members of the union councils in a district while the district assembly comprises only nazims and deputy nazims of the union councils.

A petition was moved by Shahid Thaheem later last year, saying that despite a lapse of considerable time, a final vote on the recall motion by the electoral college was not being arranged. Nazim Junejo joined the proceedings as an intervener through Advocate Abdul Mujeeb Pirzada. He challenged the legality of the procedure adopted by the district assembly.

The bench upheld the procedure adopted in compliance with the court order and asked the election authority to arrange a final vote in accordance with the law and rules.