BAHAWALPUR, Oct 9: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has abolished the Bahawalpur election tribunal and transferred its head, Justice Kazim Ali Malik (retired), to a Lahore seat for hearing election petitions there.

It is learnt that the ECP took the decision to fill the vacant post of the head of the Lahore tribunal from where tribunal head Saifur Rehman had resigned.

With the abolition of the local tribunal, its workload of about 30 pending election petitions has been divided between Lahore and Multan tribunals.

According to ECP sources, the tribunal has so far disposed of five election petitions while remaining 14 petitions have been transferred to Lahore and 16 to Multan tribunals for hearing.

The Bahawalpur High Court Bar Association has reacted sharply over the ECP’s decision to close down the local tribunal office.

Bar president Tariq Shafi, general-secretary Shahid Siddiqui and executive members in a press conference held here on Wednesday urged the ECP to restore the Bahawalpur tribunal to provide petitioners and their counsels a facility to deal with their petitions locally.