PHC restores five JUI-F councillors

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday temporarily restored the membership of five Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl district councillors, who were declared disqualified by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for violating party’s discipline by casting votes to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf candidates in district nazim election.
The court issued notice to the ECP, directing to submit reply in the case before the next hearing.Five JUI-F district councillors from Lakki Marwat, including Maulana Asghar Ali, Ali Gul, Mohammad Khalid, Haji Aftab and Patras Masih had challenged the ECP decision in the high court. They had sought restoration of their membership as district councilors.
The JUI-F had terminated the basic party membership of the five councillors for violating party discipline during elections for tehsil and district nazims in the district.
The JUI-F then filed a case with the ECP for cancelation of the membership of the councilors, which the ECP accepted and cancelled their membership as district councillors.
The petitioners’ lawyer, Qazi Muhammad Anwar submitted before the bench that the petitioners were elected as district councillors in the May 30, 2015 Local Government Elections on the JUI-F tickets.
He said that the JUI-F had boycotted the election of nazim and naib nazim in the district. During election, he submitted, the JUI-F district councillors voted for to the PTI as there was no party candidate in the contest. Qazi Anwar stated the councillors did not violate the party’s discipline as the party had announced boycott of the election.
The JUI-F provincial general council first had terminated the basic membership of its six members. It said that five of the terminated members belonged to Lakki Marwat district and one to Torghar.
The terminated members are Asghar Ali, Ali Gul, Mohammad Khalid, Haji Aftab and Patras Masih from Lakki Marwat and Safiullah Khattak from Torghar.