• Over 9,900 lawyers unable to vote as polling fails to begin at City Courts
• Bar seeks SHC chief justice’s intervention to reschedule election

KARACHI: A dramatic situation unfolded at the City Courts when over 9,900 eligible lawyers were unable to cast their votes on Thursday in the annual Karachi Bar Association (KBA) election for 2026 due to the unavailability of the election commissioner.

Speaking to Dawn, KBA President Aamir Nawaz Warraich said he would request the chief justice of the Sindh High Court (SHC) to order the election on Dec 20 (Saturday).

On Thursday morning, before the commencement of the polling, KBA Secretary General Rehman Korai informed the legal fraternity that the appointed election commissioner — who is also the District and Sessions Judge (Central) — had been hospitalised due to illness and could not come.

Subsequently, Mr Korai wrote to the registrar of the SHC, requesting the nomination of an alternate election commissioner for the KBA’s annual election for 2026.

The letter said: “It is most respectfully informed that the appointed election commissioner/ district & sessions judge, Karachi (Central), is presently going through severe health complications and has unfortunately suffered a heart attack, due to which he is unable to perform his duties on the election day.”

“In view of the urgency of the matter and to ensure smooth, transparent and lawful conduct of the election process, it is humbly requested that an alternate election commissioner/ a district & sessions judge, may kindly be nominated at the earliest for supervision of the KBA annual election 2026,” it added.

However, in response to the letter, Arfan Ali, Assistant Registrar of the SHC, stated that the request was placed before the chief justice, and he directed that the “matter pertains to the administration committee of this court and cannot be decided unilaterally.”

Meanwhile, in a video statement, Mr Warraich said they had approached the chief justice over the matter; however, he was informed that the appointment of an election commissioner was the prerogative of the administration committee.

Mr Warraich said he was also told that the chief justice could not unilaterally appoint an election commissioner, as some members of the committee were unavailable.

Later, a meeting of the KBA’s incumbent cabinet members and candidates was convened to jointly decide the future course of action at the Jinnah Auditorium within the City Courts premises.

After the meeting, the KBA president told Dawn that it had been decided to approach the chief justice again and request that the election be scheduled for Dec 20.

The KBA’s annual election for 2026 would take place for the offices of president, vice-president, general secretary, joint secretary, treasurer, librarian and 11 seats of the managing committee.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2025