Tarbela Ghazi -  The Peshawar High Court (PHC) upheld the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan to de-seat Abbottabad Nazim Sardar Sher Bahadur and 20 other local government representatives on Thursday.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Roohul Amin and Justice Syed Afsar Shah maintained the ECP’s decision of de-seating the district nazim and other local representatives from Abbottabad and Havelian districts.

Earlier, they were de-seated by the ECP for their deviation from the party policies. Sardar Sher Bahadur, while avoiding commenting on the PHC verdict, on Friday said they will challenge the Peshawar High Court verdict in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

According to the details, the former PTI Abbottabad district president Sardar Sher Bahadar had contested the local body election as an independent candidate for the seat of district council on May 30, 2015, after getting the refusal from the PTI.

He defeated the brother-in-law of then provincial information minister Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani in the election.

After winning the election, he again applied for party ticket to contest for the slot of district nazim but the PTI again refused him to nominate.

Then Sher Bahadur Khan formed a forward block and contested the election for the office of the district nazim which he won by defeating the PTI’s official nominees, Ali Khan Jadoon, with the support of the PML-N.

Following the development, the PTI cancelled his membership and moved the case in the ECP to get him disqualified for violating the defection clause of the Section 78-A of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act. The ECP disqualified Bahadur and 20 other local bodies’ representatives who allegedly deviated from the party’s policy. 

Khan challenged the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan in the Peshawar High Court and obtained a stay order with the plea that they were elected in the 2015 local bodies’ election. Later they were disqualified by the Election Commission of Pakistan for voting against the party decision, but these amendments were brought after the election.

 Khan was of the view that the KP government had amended clause 78-A of the LGA 2013 just six days after the announcement of the elections schedule and to the reason, the said amendment was not applicable to them.

Khan and other de-seated representatives further said that according to the constitution of the Pakistan every citizen has right to contest the election and prepare his policies according to his own will. They said they were not bound to act for the benefit of a specific party and their disqualification was not in accordance with the constitution.

Many similar nature cases filed by Maulana Muhammad Azhar of JUI from Lakki Marwat and other councilors arealso under trail in the Peshawar High Court.

The PHC after gathering all similar nature cases and after a number of hearings formed a two member’s bench of the Peshawar High Court comprising Justice Roohul Amin and Justice Lahal Jan Khatak and the bench had reserved the verdict which was announced on Thursday.

Announcing the 32 pages verdict, the PHC bench maintained the ECP’s decision of de-seating district nazim Abbottabad Sardar Sher Bahadur and 20 others elected members.

The court termed the disqualification of Sardar Sher Bhadar and others in order and said that when a councillor was elected on the ticket of a party then he was bound to implement the party policies, but if any member had differences with the party policies then it was constitutionally essential that he may resign from his position and re-contest the election according to his own manifesto.

District Nazim Abbottabad Sardar Sher Bahadur, Naib District Nazim Shaukat Tanoli, Nazeer Abbasi, Dr Usama, Abdul Wahab, Muhammad Zulfiqar, Shehla Zulfiqar, Bushra Jadoon, Yasmin Tariq, Shiraz Iqbal Abbasi, and Yasmin Bibi. Whereas Tehsil members from Abbottabad who were de-seated included Basit Naseem Abbasi, Abeera Gul, Nighat Yasmin and Suraya Guriya, likewise from Havelian Tehsil Habibullah, Tariq Maseeh, Nabeela Bibi, Shakila Naz and Nagina Bibi were de-seated due to that verdict.

Sardar Sher Bhadar said although he will not comment on the verdict as he believed that bench would have handed down the decision with professional honesty. However, he will challenge the decision in the Supreme Court of Pakistan after receiving detailed judgment within the next few days. He said that he had started consultations with his legal advisers and would soon challenge the decision in SC.

He said that in a similar case from Karachi, the apex court had termed any amendment in the law relating to elections after the announcement of election schedule was ineffective.

Bahadur further said that he was an ideologue of the PTI and will remain loyal to the party. He said that his struggle was against turncoats who after quitting their parties, tried to hijack the party with their ulterior motives.

Without naming anyone, he said that his war against the enemies of Imran Khan’s ideology would continue. He maintained that with the support of genuine PTI workers, he would make efforts to strengthen the party.

Sardar Sher Bahadur also said that he did not use official resources to which he was entitled under the law, except a security guard and a peon, but after receiving a verdict from the ECP he had ceased to use their services too.