PESHAWAR, Feb 28: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday dismissed three identical writ petitions challenging the disqualification by an election tribunal of three union council nazims and naib-nazims on account of holding sanads of seminaries in Hangu district.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Shahjehan Khan Yousafzai and Justice Fazalur Rehman Khan upheld the decision of the election tribunal delivered on Oct 5, 2005, through which the nazims and naib nazims were disqualified from holding these posts.
The bench ruled that the tribunal was competent under the NWFP Local Government (Conduct of Elections) Rules, 2005, to decide cases pertaining to the educational qualification of candidates.
The bench had reserved its order in these petitions on Dec 6, 2005, after completion of arguments by both the parties.
The petitions were filed by disqualified nazims of Tora Warae, Dalan and Karboghah Shareef union councils Sher Alam, Maulana Noor Muhammad and Abdul Haq respectively and their respective naib nazims.
Last October, an election tribunal disqualified them and at the same time accepted election petitions filed by their rival candidates and declared runner-up in the three councils as elected nazims.
Barrister Masood Kausar, who appeared for the petitioners, said that the election tribunal was not authorised to disqualify the petitioners. “Only the chief election commissioner can disqualify the winning candidates after the election,” Mr Kausar told the court, while referring to section 152 (1) of the NWFP Local Government Ordinance, 2001, which stipulates that candidates should possess secondary school certificate or an equivalent degree.
He argued that under section 152(2) only the chief election commissioner could disqualify an elected nazim on the grounds of the required qualification. He added that Rule 72 of the Local Government (Conduct of Elections) Rules, under which the election tribunal disqualified the nazims, was in conflict with the Local Government Ordinance.
Instead of declaring the rival candidate as the elected nazim, he said, the tribunal should have called for fresh polls.
The respondents’ counsel contended that Rule 72 fully empowered the election tribunal to deal with cases of disqualification of candidates. It was argued that the Supreme Court of Pakistan in its judgment on Aug 16, 2005, clearly pronounced that sanad holders were not qualified to contest polls, unless they had passed additional subjects of English, Urdu and Pakistan Studies.