KARACHI, March 11: A Sindh High Court division bench suspended on Friday a single judge?s order against the arbitration tribunals set up by the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

The election tribunals were declared illegal and awards given by them set aside by a single judge in a suit instituted by certain candidates for FPCCI offices. The judge held that the FPCCI president had no authority to constitute the tribunals.

Challenging the order on behalf of the FPCCI, Advocate Khalid Jawed Khan submitted that the federation president set up the tribunals under authority delegated by the FPCCI managing committee. It was an established practice and a large number of awards had been given by tribunals constituted by the president under the delegated authority of the managing committee. Long established practice and rules sanctioned such delegation of authority

Chief Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad and Justice Maqbool Baqar, who constituted the appellate bench, suspended the operation of the impugned order and issued notices to the respondents for March 24.