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 hacking of online voting system.

The petitioner states that the illegality which is being brought to the Court’s notice through this petition does not just affect the rights of the petitioners; it affects the fundamental right under Article 18 of over 10,000 architects and town planners of Pakistan.

The petitioners have alleged that on 8th March, 2023, incumbent Chairman Arif Changezi stole the elections by hastily declaring himself as winner, even though the credibility of elections was shattered because of hackers attack on the online voting system.

The petitioners have relied upon an official report, which was submitted by Oath-Systems (Pvt) Limited, the IT company entrusted with carrying out online elections, to the Registrar, PCATP. They further said that in this report, the IT company plainly admitted: “we witnessed an attack on our voting system at around 02:00am on 7th March, 2023.

As a result of this attack, our voting result was manipulated… we cannot certify the result.” After receiving this report, a majority of the Election Committee members rejected the election results. Arch Yusuf Awan, the committee’s convenor, wrote; “The report of consultant IT be attached and shared with contestants and uploaded on the website.” However, when the report of the Election Committee and the IT company were placed before him, instead of ordering a probe, the incumbent Chairman Changezi proceeded to issue a notification in his own favour and immediately declared himself as the winner. The petitioners submitted that they have approached the Court for re-polling in a demonstrably lawful and transparent manner because this is what the public interest demands.