KARACHI, Feb 7: A Sindh High Court appellate bench declined to interfere with a single judge’s order under which the election of the Bishop of Karachi Diocese of the Church of Pakistan was ordered to be held in 2002 as recommended by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Dr M Farogh Naseem, counsel for respondent Bishop Sadiq Daniel, submitted that the election was held on February 14, 2002 in accordance with the single judge’s order and that his client won the poll by defeating Rev Ejaz Inayat. The respondent has since been performing the bishop’s functions and has instituted a suit against Rev Ejaz Inayat. The high court, he claimed, has restrained the defendant in the suit from representing himself as the Bishop of Karachi Diocese.

Rev Ejaz Inayat’s counsel, Raja Qureshi, said he has also filed a suit challenging Rev Sadiq Daniel’s election along with an application impeaching the single judge’s order as having been obtained by fraud.

Disposing of the appeal, the appellate bench, which consisted of Justices Mushir Alam and Mohammad Afzal Soomro, observed that the appellant was free to agitate his grievance in the pending litigation and that it would not comment on the merits of the case.