PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday set aside a judgment of the Election Commission of Pakistan to disqualify Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf MPA from Shangla Abdul Munim and restored his membership.

The development came as Justice Ikramullah Khan and Justice Abdul Shakoor accepted a petition of Abdul Munim, who had challenged the April 19 judgment of the five-member commission, which had accepted a petition of rival Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl candidate Sher Alam.

The bench pronounced its order after the completion of arguments by the counsel for both parties.

The high court had earlier granted interim relief to the petitioner and suspended the ECP order until the final disposal of his petition.

ECP had disqualified Abdul Munim over false election undertaking

While disqualifying Abdul Munim, who was elected from PK-88 Shangla and was a special assistant to KP chief minister, the ECP had asked him to return the salary he had received as an MPA until now.

The police was also told to register an FIR against Abdul Munim for giving a false undertaking ahead of general elections.

Sher Alam had claimed that Abdul Munim was a schoolteacher and had tendered resignation on Mar 31, 2013, few days before the scrutiny of his nomination papers.

He had said under Article 63 of the Constitution, a candidate was disqualified from contesting elections if he had remained in the service of Pakistan and a period of two years had not lapsed since he ceased to be in such service.

Abdul Lateef Afridi and Waqar Ahmad, lawyers for petitioner Abdul Munim, said the ECP had erred in disqualifying their client as the judgment was not based on facts.

They insisted that the anti-corruption establishment (ACE) had already begun an inquiry into those allegations and while that inquiry had yet to be completed, the ECP had delivered that judgment.

The lawyers added that the ACE should have waited for the completion of the said inquiry.

The counsel claimed that the petitioner was appointed as a teacher to an adult literacy programme centre, Nai Roshni School, in 1987 for five months only after which the said project had ended.

They said complainant Sher Alam had approached the ECP on the basis of forged documents.

The lawyer for Sher Alam said Abdul Munim was appointed a primary schoolteacher in 1987 and that he continued to draw salary of that position manually until 2006.

He added that from 2007 onwards, Abdul Munim continued to receive salary through bank account.

The lawyer pointed out that on the same number, he continued to receive salary as MPA and that of the special assistant to the CM.

During the 2013 general elections, Abdul Munim had secured 10,494 votes as an independent candidate against 7,652 votes received by petitioner Sher Alam. He later joined a Swabi-based political party, Awami Jamhori Ittehad Pakistan, which merged with the PTI afterwards.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2017