ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court has stopped an election process to elect the management committee of the WAPDA Employees Co-Operative Housing Society Limited for next three years.
The WAPDA housing society is registered with the Registrar Co-operatives, Islamabad Capital Territory under the Co-operative Societies Act, 1925 and has approximately more than 4000 voters. A petition in this regard was filed by some of the society members, who alleged that the said election process was announced in a dubious manner to manoeuvre re-election of Muhammad Yousf Awan for third consecutive term as president of the housing society.
They pointed out that the administrator of the society announced the schedule of the elections in February 2021, at the time when Covid-19 was at its peak and there was a complete transportation ban throughout the country.
The petition contended that Yousaf Awan, who has been president of the society for previous two tenures, in connivance with the administrator managed the issuance of schedule in such time when the members of the society were unable to reach for participation in the whole process of election due to Covid-19. 
Moreover, the administrator did not send the schedule to the majority of members of the society. The petition argued that the copy of the schedule was sent to some of the members only but that too was sent very late deliberately therefore they could not participate in the election process.
The petitioners alleged further that due to this act and conduct of the administrator, Muhammad Yousaf Awan and Masood Akbar Sial were elected unopposed as president and secretary without any challenge, scrutiny and contest from the members of the society.
The petitioners contended further that Muhammad Yousaf was not eligible to contest elections for the third consecutive term according to the bylaw No. 31(2) of the society. They also informed the court that even otherwise Awan was previously terminated from the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IESCO in 2015 on misconduct.
It is also pointed out that the district administration itself ordered to postpone all the Annual General Body Meetings and Elections of Cooperative Societies due to prevailing Covid-19 situation till further orders in March 2021.
Meanwhile, the petitioner along with dozens of other members approached the administration for re-schedule of elections on the pretext of aforementioned circumstances but instead of ordering fresh elections an Assistant Commissioner (IA) ICT Islamabad was made as inquiry officer to probe into the queries raised by the petitioner, which is still pending.
The petitioner informed the court further that astonishingly and out of the blue, election commissioner of the society through publication of a notice in press on 16-09-2021 had once again announced the elections/polling of the Management Committee of the Society for 25-09-2021 in which there is no mention of complete new schedule i.e. displaying of interim voter list and objections thereon, issuance, receiving and scrutiny of form of nominations, appeals and display of final list etc. and time to withdraw candidature.
The petitioner prayed before the court that the aforementioned notice should be set aside and respondents may be directed to issue a complete schedule for the elections of the Society in order to enable all the members of the society to participate in the process of the elections.
Justice Babar Sattar on Friday heard the case in which the assistant registrar failed to explain his position on how he is authorised to issue election notification.
The IHC in addition to the issuance of notices to all respondents for their comprehensive response also stopped the election process till the next date of hearing and adjourned the proceedings till 7th of October 2021.
Meanwhile, when contacted to know how a sacked government officer is allowed to contest the elections a third time in violation of the rules, Assistant Commissioner Rana Musa declined to respond and said that the matter is in court and he cannot comment on it.