PESHAWAR, March 3: A controversy has emerged between the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council and Peshawar High Court Bar Association over the issue of voters list for the scheduled annual elections of the association.
An interesting situation emerged on Thursday when first the KP Bar Council suspended the elections scheduled for March 12 and later the appeal committee of Pakistan Bar Council suspended the said order in Islamabad over an appeal filed by a candidate for the post of secretary general, Muhammad Ijaz Khan.
The chairman, election committee, Abdul Qadir Khattak, has also sent a letter to the bar council stating that the election process would continue in accordance with the announced schedule.
It is learnt that there are around 2,340 members of PHCBA out of which 1,600 have not deposited their annual fee.
The KP Bar Council in its recent meeting had decided that the fee defaulters would not be permitted to participate in the elections of district bar associations as well as PHCBA. It had decided that elections would be held in accordance with the voters lists to be provided by the council.
On Thursday, the secretary of KP Bar Council, Naeem Pervez, sent a letter to the chairman of the election commission of PHCBA, Abdul Qadir Khattak, wherein it was stated that the attitude of the commission was non-cooperative towards implementing the provisions of Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Rules.
“The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council is constrained to suspend the election process of PHCBA as the voters list for the said bar association consists of defaulters of bar council dues, who are not eligible voter in terms of section 42 (4) of the Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Act 1973 and KP Bar Council Rules 2010,” the letter states.
The said order was challenged by Muhammad Ijaz Khan before the appeal committee of Pakistan Bar Council, which met under the chairmanship of Roohul Amin Chamkani in Islamabad. The committee suspended the impugned order of the bar council and directed that the PHCBA elections should be held as per schedule.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the election committee, Abdul Qadir Khattak, in a reply to the letter of the bar council stated that he had limited mandate as election commissioner to conduct the election for the PHCBA and matters relating to defaulters of dues could be settled with by the elected representatives of the association. He added that he would proceed with the election schedule as announced earlier.