KARACHI, March 19: An appellate bench of the Sindh High Court adjourned on Wednesday the hearing of an intra-court appeal filed by Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan against an order of a single judge.

The single bench had ordered constitution of a committee to help Dr Qadeer and respondent Dr S. Haroon Ahmed jointly run the Institute of Behavioural Sciences.

The impugned interim order was passed by Justice Zahid Kurban Alavi on Feb 18. Subsequently, he asked the Sindh High Court Bar Association president, who is a member of the committee, to convene its meeting as early as possible.

The committee will submit its report on IBS affairs to the court within a month of its first meeting.

The judge also asked the Pakistan Association for Mental Health, headed by Dr Ahmed, to depute doctors to treat patients at the IBS without involving themselves in any other activity.

The suits and counter-suits and several applications moved by the two parties will be taken up by Justice Alavi after the receipt of the committee’s report.

The appeal against the interim order came up before a division bench, comprising Justice Mohammad Roshan Essani and Anwar Zaheer Jamali, on Wednesday but its hearing was adjourned due to non-availability of the appellant’s counsel, Barrister Dr Farogh Naseem.