Daily Times

UPPER DIR: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa (KP) chapter has given the verdict of the dissolution of tehsil council of Wari, in Upper Dir district, after election on tehsil nazim and naib nazim slots ended in a tie for the third consecutive time and it ordered of the fresh election on tehsil councilor seat in nine tehsil seats of the tehsil.

The election for tehsil nazim and naib nazim slot ended in tie for the third time on December 6, 2016 when both the sides once again secured seven votes each. Before that the election of the tehsil Wari nazim and naib nazim ended for the first time on August30, 2015.

Then for the second time on September 13 the election once again ended in tie when both the sides secured seven votes each in the 14-member council.

Only a day before on September 20, 2016, the fix date for the third round of the election, the Jomaat-e-Islami had got a stay order from a local court and since then holding of the election delayed because the case went into high court after the local court verdict.

The JI had got nine seats including two reserve seats and it was in the strong position to form tehsil government in Wari tehsil however two dissident members of the JI Gul Bahadar and a woman councilor, both elected on reserve seats, had joined the opposition camp. And thus an interesting situation had created because the JI’s seats reduced to seven from nine and the opposition seat increased to seven from five. The opposition had nominated Gul Bahadar for the tehsil nazim slot.

According to the local government act of KP, a tehsil or district council would be dissolved if elections in it ended in tie three consecutive times.

The same had happened in tehsil Wari. And then the ECP had announced the verdict of dissolution of the tehsil council of Wari on January 13.

The District Election Commissioner of Upper Dir Amjad Ali told this correspondent that his office had received the dissolution of tehsil Wari council’s notification on January 16. He however said that the ECP had not yet issued date for fresh election and when the ECP issue order election on tehsil councilor seat would be held.

The JI Upper Dir chapter has also filed a case against disqualification of its two dissented members in the ECP in Peshawar office but they filed the case very late because the case is still under process in ECP and thus the JI had lost a golden chance of making tehsil government in Wari tehsil. Because if they would have filed the disqualification case quit earlier they might succeeded in to win the case and replace two other its members on those two reserve seats and win the election easily.