PESHAWAR, Aug 9: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday allowed number of candidates for the posts of union council nazim and naib nazim, whose nominations were rejected, to contest the forthcoming local government election.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Qaim Jan Khan and Justice Saleem Khan also allowed a candidate possessing seminary sanad to contest for the post of a UC nazim in the Mansehra district.

The nomination papers of the panel of nazim and naib nazim, Qari Gohar Rehman and Muhammad Haneef, respectively, had been rejected by the returning officer of the union council Bogar Mang in Mansehra on the grounds that Qari Gohar possessed the sanad of a seminary. Their appeal was also dismissed by the district returning officer.

Advocates Qazi Muhammad Anwer and Sohail Akhter appeared for the petitioners and contended that the sanad of Shahdatul Sanvia Ama was equivalent to matriculation, the qualification required for contesting for the posts of nazim and naib nazim.

The lawyers pointed out that the court had already allowed various panels to contest polls on the same grounds. They contended that the returning and district returning officers had erred in rejecting their nomination papers.

The bench then decided to allow the panel to contest the election.

The court granted another panel for the posts of nazim and naib nazim of union council Pamal Shareef in the Batagram district. The returning officer had rejected their nomination papers after he received an anonymous complaint that they were government servants and thus could not contest the polls.

Candidate Shahnawaz for nazim and Misbahuddin for naib nazim challenged the order of the returning officer. They contended that the returning officer had no authority to act on an anonymous letter without verification of allegations.

The bench accepted their plea and ordered that they should be allotted election symbols.

The court also allowed the panel for nazim and naib nazim of union council Katai in the Mansehra district. They had been disqualified on the grounds that there was some error in the name of one of the candidates in electoral rolls of 2001.

Iftikhar Alam (for nazim) and Abdul Kalam (for naib nazim) told the court that the name of Mr Iftikhar’s father was incorrect in the rolls of 2001, but the same had been corrected in the voter lists of 2002.

The bench granted interim relief to the petitioners and directed that they should be allotted election symbols.

Meanwhile, the court issued a notice to the Election Commission of Pakistan in a writ petition challenging the nomination papers of a panel of nazim and naib nazim on the grounds that one of the secondary school certificates was forged.

The bench fixed Aug 12 for next hearing in the petition filed by Raheem Shad and Nawabzada, contesting for nazim and naib nazim of union council Sadbar (Lower Dir). They had challenged the papers of rival panel of Azizur Rehman and Sheikhur Rehman.

The petitioner stated that Sheikhur Rehman had produced the secondary school certificate according to which he had passed his matriculation examination in 1978. Advocate Fida Gul appeared for the petitioners and argued that in the result gazette of 1978 the name of Sheikhur Rehman was not mentioned and thus his certificate was fake.