Abbottabad LG shake-up: High court suspends ECP’s order to de-seat nazim, councillors

Next date of hearing will be fixed by high court registrar

ABBOTABAD: The Peshawar High Court’s Abbottabad bench suspended on Wednesday the Election Commission of Pakistan’s order to de-seat various members of the district and tehsil council.

A bench, comprising Justice Lal Jan Khatak and Justice Qalandar Ali Khan, heard the arguments from Advocate Babar Sattar who appeared in court on behalf of Abbottabad district nazim Sardar Sher Bahadur Khan and other petitioners.

Sattar urged the court to declare the ECP’s order null and void. As a result, the court through a short order suspended the order and issued a notice to the poll body.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Abbottabad district naib nazim Shaukat Tanoli said the next date for hearing would be fixed by the high court registrar.

Triumph

Later in the day, Bahadur’s supporters held a rally in Abbottabad and shouted slogans in his favour.



Speaking on this occasion, the district nazim said the PHC’s decision to suspend the poll body’s order “marks the triumph of true PTI workers”.

Bahadur, former district president of PTI, was elected district nazim with the support of PML-N district councillors and PTI’s forward bloc in the district council.

De-seated

The poll body had de-seated Abbottabad district nazim Sardar Sher Bahadur, along with other members of PTI’s forward bloc in the council on January 29. The decision was taken under Section 78-A of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act 2013 for floor-crossing.

The ECP also de-seated Shaukat Tanoli, Nazeer Abbasi, Dr Usama, Abdul Wahab, Muhammad Zulfiqar, Shehla Zulfiqar, Bushra Jadoon, Yasmin Tariq, Shiraz Iqbal Abbasi and Yasmin Bibi from Abbottabad district council. Basit Naseem Abbasi, Abeera Gul, Nighat Yasmin and Suraya Guriya were de-seated from Abbottabad tehsil council and Habibullah, Tariq Maseeh, Nabeela Bibi, Shakila Naz and Nagina Bibi were de-seated from Havelian tehsil council.

Bahadur had vowed to challenge the decision in the high court.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th,  2016.