Diocese of Karachi representatives accuse advocate general of influencing election for bishop

Leaders of Dioceses of Karachi, including Father Sarwar Eric and Father Shafique Kanwal have alleged that the Advocate General (AG) of Sindh, Salman Talibuddin, has been trying to influence the election of Bishop for ulterior motives.

Addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, they said the land mafia in collusion of the Sindh government wanted to occupy property worth trillions of rupees belonging to the Church of Pakistan and for that they wanted a Bishop of their own choice.

They said that after the retirement of Bishop Sadiq Daniel in 2020, some ministers and other influential people in the Sindh government had been hatching up conspiracies against the Church of Pakistan and Diocese of Karachi through the AG.

They alleged that the AG was misguiding the court to bypass the church constitution and election rules. He said that because they had been opposing such moves, the AG office was trying to declare them unqualified for the position so that they could bring their own people.

On April 29, 2021, they said, the AG misguided a division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) and by wrong implementation of the election rules, got an order to stop the election. They appealed to the chief justice of Pakistan and chief justice of Sindh to take notice of it.

They also appealed to Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to take notice of these conspiracies. They demanded that the AG be removed to save precious properties of the church and to ensure that the new Bishop was elected as per the aspirations of community and not on whims of the land mafia.