PHC maintains councillor-elect’s disqualification

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday maintained a decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan on the disqualification of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s tehsil councilor-elect.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Musarrat Hilali and Justice Muhammad Younas Thahim dismissed the writ petition filed against the decision of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) after arguments from both the parties and Election Commission.
The disqualified tehsil nazim Israr Khan had challenged the ECP decision in the PHC, seeking suspension of the decision and permission to take part in the oath-taking ceremony of councillors and members to be held today.
The petitioner’s lawyer submitted before the bench that his client had won the election for tehsil councilor from union council Bezankhel, Bannu district, in the May 2015 local government elections.
He said the ECP also declared him winner. He said that his rival candidates including Akbar Zaman and Haroon then filed a complaint in the ECP, seeking disqualification of the PTI’s elected tehsil councilor on the grounds that he was not eligible for contesting the elections.
The lawyer pointed out that the ECP first suspended his notification as tehsil councillor and then on August 20 declared him disqualified on reasons that there were less than six months since he resigned a government job.
He argued that his client had tendered resignation on September 13, 2014 as the government schoolteacher and then he was struck off from the register on September 16. He said the petitioner had given resignation nine months ago and it was not his fault if his resignation was accepted later.
Counsel for the respondents and rival candidates, Anwarul Haq, submitted before the bench that resignation of the petitioner was accepted in April 2015 and elections were held in May 2015. He pointed out that a government servant could take part in the politics six months after acceptance of resignation and the petitioner’s resignation was accepted only one month before the elections.
A representative of the ECP also defended the decision, saying the petitioner was not qualified at the time of election.
Separately, in another case the same bench stopped the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission from arresting Kohat’s chief municipal coordinator Noor Daraz Khattak, father of PTI MPA Gul Sahib Khan, in the commercial plaza case.
However, the court directed Noor Daraz Khattak to cooperate with the Ehtesab Commission in the investigation of the fresh case against him.
The commission has already booked Noor Daraz Khattak in three cases, in which he was on interim bail from the high court.
On August 5, the petitioner had also got restraining order from the high court regarding his arrest in another case related to illegal assets.
The petitioner’s lawyer, Sahibzada Asadullah submitted before the bench that his client had already been on bail and in the meanwhile the Ehtesab Commission is preparing another case of embezzlement in the commercial plaza at Kohat related to the period when he was Kohat TMO in 2004 and 2005.
He said the petitioner feared arrest by the commission. He requested the court to restrain the commission from arrest of the petitioner as he was fully cooperating in the investigation.