ISLAMABAD, Nov 23: Former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Malik Muhammad Qayyum, who had conducted the association’s elections as a returning officer (RO), has levelled allegations of bias against the executive committee of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and refused to attend its meeting called on Sunday to decide an appeal against him.

On Tuesday, an 11-member bench of the Supreme Court had directed the executive committee to decide, in two weeks, the pending appeal regarding the election of the president of the SCBA.

The seven-member committee is meeting on Sunday to hear the appeal of Muneer A. Malik against Malik Muhammad Qayyum. The PBC has already served notices to the respondents, including the RO.

"I will not appear before the committee as it has bias against Raja Haq Nawaz and it would be useless to argue before them," Malik Qayyum told reporters here on Thursday.

He was of the view that the PBC had no legal right to interfere in the affairs of the SCBA. He said the committee, in its interim order of November 7, had favoured Muneer A. Malik by declaring him the winner.

On November 6, Malik Qayyum as RO had issued a notification declaring Raja Haq Nawaz as the successful candidate. Consequently, Muneer approached the executive committee against the RO’s decision and got a decision in his favour.

On November 8, the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court suspended the PBC committee’s order, asked Raja Haq Nawaz to assume the office and referred the matter to the chief justice for formation of a larger bench to hear the matter.

Meanwhile, Munir Malik instituted an appeal before the Supreme Court challenging the stay order of the high court and the apex court set aside the orders of both the PBC and the high court and directed the executive committee to settle the dispute within a fortnight.