KARACHI: A senior Civil Judge West and Special Court for Cooperative Societies in Karachi, Naleymitho @ Muhammad Ishaq, has restrained the announcement of results of the elections of the Karimabad Ismailia Multipurpose Cooperative Housing Society Ltd.
The lawyer for the petitioner, Naeela Kausar Sheikh, representing Aftab Hussain Ali, told the court that the elections held on April 12, 2026 were conducted under an order issued by the Registrar Cooperative Societies Sindh (Order No. RCS/KYC/198/2025 dated July 22, 2025), under which Assistant Registrar Cooperative Societies-II Karachi, Rabia Khan, was appointed as the Election Officer for the society. She argued that the notification was valid for only 30 days, which had already expired, and no legal extension was granted, therefore the current election process is not legally valid.
After the initial hearing, the court said that the matter appears to be serious and needs detailed examination. The court also ordered that the elections may be held as scheduled, but the results will not be announced until a final decision in the case is made.
The court issued notices to all parties and directed them to present complete records at the next hearing. They were also asked to clarify whether any legal extension was granted in the notification and whether the election process was conducted according to the relevant laws, bylaws, and SOPs. The next hearing of the case has been scheduled for April 17, 2026.
Karimabad Ismailia Multipurpose Cooperative Housing Society’s previous committee term ended on May 7, 2025, but it was neither formally removed nor were timely elections held, which created an administrative gap. During this period, reports of alleged corruption and financial irregularities increased, including claims of money being collected in transfer and construction matters, causing serious concern.
Registrar Cooperative Societies Sindh issued an order (No. ARCS(Gen)/KYC/RCS/Direct/20/2026 dated April 9, 2026) directing that during the interim period of elections, all financial and development activities of the society should be strictly limited to routine matters only and no major development work should be carried out, and a copy of this order was also sent to the Election Officer for necessary action and record.
