PESHAWAR, April 24: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council (KPBC) on Tuesday declared the Peshawar High Court Bar Association (PHCBA) annual elections void prompting the newly-elected office-bearers to announce to challenge it before the Pakistan Bar Council’s appeal committee.

The KPBC, which took the decision in a meeting of its general body here, also ordered to freeze the PHCBA accounts and issued notices to election commissioner Khawaja Mohammad Gara and contesting candidates saying why action should not be taken against them for violating its orders.

Presided over by KPBC vice chairman Fazal Tawab Khan, the meeting was attended by 22 of the council’s 28 members.

Participants declared that the election commissioner and the candidates, including winners, had violated the council’s executive committee order issued on April 20 wherein the schedule of elections was suspended and instead, a two-member committee was formed to announce fresh schedule for elections within a week.

They asked the committee comprising Akhtar Ali Khan Nahqi and Ghulam Nabi to issue fresh schedule for the PHCBA elections.

On April 20, the KPBC executive committee observed that the election commission had violated the relevant rules by holding the elections on the voter list prepared by PHCBA not the one prepared by the council. It also said more than half of the PHCBA members had defaulted on the Benevolent Fund payments.

Meanwhile, the newly-elected secretary general of PHCBA, Qazi Jawad Ahsanullah, told Dawn that he and many others opposed the decision as it was illegal. He said they all had filed a request for getting a certified copy of the controversial order and once that was issued, they would file an appeal against the KPBC decision with the Pakistan Bar Council.

Mr Jawad said under the Benevolent Fund rules, it was responsibility of the council to issue notices to the defaulting lawyers and in case, he or she did not clear dues then the council could suspend their licences.

He, however, said the council had not fulfilled its responsibility and illegally tried to force the PHCBA to stop its members from casting vote. He said when the licence of a member was not suspended and that he had cleared dues of PHCBA, then how could he be stopped from casting vote.

Amidst the controversy, a statement has come from PBC appeal committee chairman Roohul Amin Chamkani that before the start of the electoral process on April 21, he had ordered the continuation of the elections.

When contacted, Mr Chamkani told Dawn that that one of the candidates for the post of vice president, Babar Khan Yousafzai, had filed appeal against the earlier order of the council over which he had issued notices to the parties. He said since arrangements had been finalised and therefore, he asked the election commissioner to carry out the polling process in accordance with the schedule.

The controversy revolves around the valid voter lists as the bar council opines that the elections of every bar association in the province, including PHCBA, should be held on the voter list of the council, which include those members who had cleared their outstanding dues. On the other hand, PHCBA insists it has its own list of valid voters.

The PHCBA had fixed April 17 for clearance of its dues by members failing which they were not entitle to be a voter in the poll. After that date, around 1,851 members were declared eligible voters.