KARACHI, Nov 16: The Sindh High Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing of a writ petition disputing the Supreme Court Bar Association election results announced on Nov 6 to ascertain whether the matter is also pending before the Supreme Court or not.

A bench comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Sajjad Ali Shah asked petitioners’ counsel Abdul Hafeez Lakho to produce on Friday the paper book of the case submitted in the Supreme Court to satisfy it that the matter agitated before it was not sub judice in the apex court. The petitioners’ plea for an interim injunction against Raja Haq Nawaz Khan and Nawab Saeedullah Khan, declared president and vice-president, respectively, would be considered after ensuring that an identical matter was not pending before the Supreme Court, the bench said. Justice Osmany also remarked that the Supreme Court might order re-election as prayed by the petitioners but it would not be fair to pre-judge the issue.

Appearing for petitioners Abdul Haleem Pirzada, a former president of the SCBA, Khawaja Mansoor, chairman of the Sindh Bar Council executive committee, and advocate Hussain Shah Rashdi, Mr Lakho argued that the lawyers were seeking a writ of quo warranto requiring the SCBA chief and the vice-president from Punjab to show the authority of law under which they purported to hold the association’s offices. They (the petitioners) are among the senior lawyers from Sindh who have been disenfranchised by excluding all 231 ballots cast at the Karachi polling station in the SCBA polls on Oct 31 from the recount held by “a self-appointed returning officer”, SCBA ex-president Malik Mohammad Qayyum, whose term expired on Oct 31. The exclusion on technical grounds of the SCBA’s Sindh constituency contravened their fundamental right under Article 17 of the Constitution guaranteeing the freedom of association. The issue has not been raised before the Supreme Court or before the Lahore High Court.

The counsel further argued that the secretary of the outgoing SCBA executive committee, which was responsible for holding the polls, announced the consolidated results on Nov 2, according to which Muneer A. Malik was declared elected as president and Sahibzada Anwar Hamid as vice-president from Punjab.

The results were known at the respective polling stations on Oct 31 but were consolidated on Nov 2. Under the SCBA Rules, polls are to be conducted by the outgoing executive committee, which may constitute a committee of five senior lawyers for the purpose. There is no mention of a ‘returning officer’, in which capacity Malik Mohammad Qayyum not only conducted the elections but held recount of votes twice on Nov 4 and 6 after ceasing to hold the SCBA president’s office on Oct 31.

The recount and the results were challenged before the Pakistan Bar Council executive committee as provided by the SCBA Rules and the committee restrained Raja Haq Nawaz Khan but the LHC’s Rawalpindi bench stayed the operation of the PBC order.

The LHC single judge’s order has been challenged in the Supreme Court but the proceedings are based on an entirely different cause of action, the petitioners’ counsel contended.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will hear an appeal against the LHC interim order on Nov 20 and an LHC bench the main case at Lahore on that date.