ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has suspended the showcause notice issued by the chairman Pakistan Council of Architects and Town Planners (PCATP) to an architect, Jahangir Khan Sherpao and others.

A well-known architect, Usman Mirza, had filed a writ of quo warranto against Chairman Arif Changezi and other members of the Executive Committee of the PCATP.

Advocate Umer Ijaz Gilani represented architect Usman Mirza before the IHC. He stated that the incumbent body of the PCATP has been elected through an illegal election as the matter relating to legality of such election is under adjudication before the IHC.

The petitioner alleged that Chairman Arif Changezi has assumed office by rigging the online elections of the PCATP earlier this year.

The petitioner has brought on the Court’s record documents where the IT company which conducted online elections, openly admitted that their election system got hacked and results were not reliable. Chairman Arif Changezi, who was running for a second term, took advantage of the situation and had himself declared winner.

The bench was also informed that notwithstanding the question of legality of such election, the functionaries have assumed the office and continued to exercise the authority of PCATP in taking penal action against the petitioner and other architects, who questioned the legality of the election.

After hearing preliminary arguments of counsel for the petitioner, Justice Babar Sattar, who heard the case, issued notices to the respondents on a fresh writ of quo warranto. The court issued notices to the federation as well as the respondents to file parawise comments before the next date of hearing.

It is pertinent to mention that in an earlier petition, filed by a separate set of architects, the FIA submitted a startling report in IHC pointing out that it was able to trace the location from where the hacking took place. The location matches with the Karachi address of Chairman Arif Changezi, the beneficiary of the hacking.

In his defense, Architect Changezi told the FIA that he was simply trying to cast the vote on behalf of one of his voters who had disclosed her password to him. He made about 15 efforts to log in and out of the online system for this purpose alone, this giving the impression of involvement in suspicious activity.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023