Architects move IHC challenging election results of Pakistan Council of Architects and Town Planners.

ISLAMABAD -- A writ petition challenging the election results of Pakistan Council of Architects and Town Planners (PCATP) have been filed in the Islamabad High Court (IHC). In the petition, the architects including Jehangir Khan Sherpao, Azhar M Sualehi, Farmanullah Khan, and Husnain Raza Khan moved the IHC praying to the court to set aside the election results and order transparent re-polling.

The architects who were running for the PCATC office filed the writ petition under Article 199 of the constitution through advocates, Umer Ijaz Gilani and Jehanzeb Durrani. The petitioners have also urged an FIA probe into the hacking which amounts to an offence under the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act, 2016. They stated that there are around 10,000 registered architects and town planners in Pakistan. They all are regulated by the Pakistan Council of Architects and Town Planners set up under the PCATP Ordinance, 1983. Elections for the PCATP Executive Committee are held every two years. The PCATP's Registrar, Election Committee, and the incumbent Chairman Arif Changezi, Federal Secretary of Housing and Works, and the FIA have been impleaded as respondents.

The petitioners contended that the victory notification issued by the incumbent chairman purports to have been issued in pursuance of Bye-law 43 of the PCATP Byes of 1983. However, it fails to meet the pre-requisites laid down in the said provision. They said that bye-law 43 envisages a step-by-step process of scrutiny of votes, resolution of objections and certifications of results. Nothing of the sort happened. The petitioners contend that the chairman could issue the notification if the Election Committee had unanimously certified the results as authentic. However, they continued that in the present situation, the Election Committee - or at least a majority of its members - did not certify the result at all. Instead, the committee had urged the publication of the IT company's report about the...