HYDERABAD, Oct 8: The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Wednesday suspended voting scheduled for Oct 9 at a disputed polling station for referendum on determining collective bargaining agent (CBA) for the Hyderabad Development Authority till the next date of hearing on Oct 14.

Justice Arshad Noor Khan passed the order on a petition filed by Sartaj Mehmood Khan, the general secretary of the United Workers Front (UWF) of HDA.

The petitioner cited regional registrar of Trade Unions, assistant director of Labour, HDA Mehran Workers Union through its general secretary, HDA Employees Union through its general secretary, HDA through its general secretary and secretary labour as respondents.The petitioner said that there were three other registered trade unions besides HDA Labour Union so the petitioner and other unions moved applications to the regional registrar of Trade Unions in 2006, requesting him to hold referendum on determining CBA.

But it took the registrar two whole years to entertain the applications and he announced and fixed date for secret ballot on Aug 30, 2008 and set up six polling stations, he said.

He said that polling was held on Aug 30 in a peaceful manner and at polling station No5 and booth No1 set up at the disposal pumping station of HDA Unit-9.

There was no complaint about malpractice, irregularity, rigging or bogus voting in the course of voting and the process came to an end without any dispute in the presence of competent authority nominated by the regional registrar and assistant director of labour, he said.

When the counting of votes began unknown people and political activists forced into PS-5 and tried to interfere with the result of polling station, he said, adding, that he apprised the regional registrar and assistant director of labour of facts in detail and then submitted a complaint.

He said that he and the UWF polling agent moved applications detailing irregularities, malpractices and bogus voting at different polling stations and threats of dire consequences by Mehran Workers Union in collusion with political elements, who acted in league with polling officers posted by the regional registrar.

He said that after completion of polling process and conclusion of vote count the booth-wise result of PS-5 was handed to each polling agent of the contesting trade unions but surprisingly no unofficial result was announced by the registrar and assistant director of labour or their representatives.

The petitioner said that on Sept 2 he and office-bearers of UWF and representatives of other unions went to the office of the officials but they handed them a copy of consolidated result of referendum without holding a meeting and discussing allegations of irregularities.

The consolidated result showed that voting on PS-5 had been withheld “due to dispute and complaints by representative of Mehran Workers Union and HDA Employees Union”.

He moved applications from time to time to the respondents, requesting them to make announcement of the result of referendum but he received no response nor any action was taken on the application.

On Sept 16, the assistant director of labour called him and representatives of other unions in his office and delivered them a copy of the order dated Sept 16, which showed result of PS-5 as withheld.

It claimed that the polling staff of polling booth-I of PS-5 had reported that they were pressurised by unknown people during counting and votes cast were tampered, rendering the result disputed. No other person appeared on Aug 30 to say a word against polling held at the said booth of PS, he said.

He claimed that the director passed the order for fresh polling at the said booth of PS-5 on Sept 1. On Sept 17, he moved an application to the regional registrar, requesting that referendum held on Aug 30 and order of Sept 16 be recalled. He, however, upheld the Sept 16 order although there was no provision for revision of the order, he argued.

The petitioner said that the order was illegal and mala fide and passed with ulterior motives. The respondents did not pay any attention or take any action on complaints moved by the petitioner about rigging and bogus voting, he said and prayed the court to declare Sept 16 order of the registrar and assistant director labour as illegal and liable to be set aside. He requested that the respondents should be directed to hold fresh election for referendum on determining the CBA in the HDA.