HYDERABAD: The Pakistan Bar Council (PCB) has deferred the High Court Bar Association (HCBA) election for its Hyderabad chapter to Jan 27.

The election was originally scheduled for Jan 13 — after a gap of two years — but put off to Jan 20 before it was again deferred to Jan 27 through an interim order issued by PBC on Thursday.

In the 2016 election, Ayaz Tunio and Hameedullah Dahiri were declared elected as president and general secretary, respectively. Advocate Tunio, who was to retain his position in the postponed election, told reporters that the election for the bar’s Hyderabad chapter could not be held last year because the matter was pending adjudication in the high court and later the election committee had resigned.

Noorul Ameen Sipyo, the candidate for the post of joint secretary belonging to Advocate Tunio’s panel, had moved the PCB objecting to the exclusion of several voters’ name from voters’ list. On Thursday, PBC suspended an order of the Sindh Bar Council on his application and issued an interim order deferring the election to Jan 27 and fixing Jan 26 as the date for its final order.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2018