Arts Council elections: SHC stays inclusion of new members in voters list

Around 400 members were recently inducted into the Arts Council of Pakistan.

KARACHI:
The Sindh High Court (SHC) has restrained the Arts Council of Pakistan from including as many as 400 members in the electoral list for the upcoming elections, who have not paid membership fees according to rules.

Headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar, the division bench also restrained the council from receiving back-dated cash payments of fees from these members. The temporary restraining orders came on a petition jointly filed by some members of the Arts Council of Pakistan against alleged illegal memberships ahead of the December 21 elections.

The petitioners, including Muhammad Ashfaq Abadni, said that the incumbent managing body of the arts council was indulging in illegal practices, as it had started issuing fake memberships to increase their votes. They complained that in a recent meeting, the body had decided to award membership to as many as 400 people. The membership has been given with reference to a previous decision of the body and lists of new members has also been approved.


Their lawyer, Badar Alam, said that the respondents have given the membership and are receiving their fees in the back dates, which is a clear violation of the rules. Under the law, a member becomes eligible to cast vote after paying the membership fee six months before the polls.

After preliminary hearing, the two judges issued notices to the provincial chief secretary and the arts council management for December 11 to file their comments.

Till then, the arts council was restrained from receiving any cash payment of fee in back dates. The bench also ordered that all those individuals, who have not paid memberships fees six months prior to the polls, will not be included in the electoral list.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7th, 2014.
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