Tehsil presiding officers: PHC seeks reply from ECP about delay in elections

MANSEHRA: Peshawar High Courts’ Abbottabad Circuit Bench on Wednesday ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan to submit its response in the prolonged delay of tehsil presiding officers’ elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad and Justice Mohammad Ijaz Khan after hearing Bilal Khan, the counsel for the petitioner Malik Mohammad Mumtaz, ordered the central and provincial election commissioners, Director Khyber Pakhtunkhwa local governments and 10 other respondents in the case to submit legal comments on the delay of the TPO elections on June 22 this year.

“My clients are a group of Mansehra Tehsil Council members who approached the PHC to ensure the elections of TPOs. These elections were scheduled to be held across the province some six months ago and nomination papers had also been filed,” said Bilal Khan Advocate. The counsel for the petitioners said that he had pleaded that over a year had passed since the installation of the local governments in the province but those bodies were still without custodians of the councils.