LAHORE, Nov 5: A local civil court on Monday restrained Farooq Iftikhar from functioning as president of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and sought a reply from the election commission of the chamber.

The court issued the interim stay order on a petition of Malik Shamim and fixed Nov 10 the next date of hearing.

The petitioner pleaded that Iftikhar was not eligible to contest the election and suffered from pre-election disqualification. He pointed out that under the LCCI rules, a member could not contest election unless a period of one year lapsed to his/her previous term.

He said respondent Iftikhar was elected executive member of the chamber in 2010 for a period of two years. Iftikhar in a bid to avoid the embargo resigned from his office after enjoying the term for one and half years, he said.

The petitioner insisted that the respondent was not eligible to contest the election for the year 2012, therefore, his election should be declared void.