The Islamabad High Court on Saturday declared the October 2025 elections of the Pakistan Badminton Federation illegal and null and void, ordering fresh polls to be conducted within 90 days.
The court directed the Pakistan Sports Board to notify an Election Commission and oversee the new electoral process in accordance with Rule 17 of the Pakistan Sports Board Constitution 2022.
An ad hoc committee has been ordered to manage the day-to-day affairs of the federation until a newly elected body formally assumes charge.
The committee will be headed by the Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination and will oversee sporting administration during the interim period.
Membership of the ad hoc committee will include the Director of National Sports Federations of the Pakistan Sports Board as well as four former badminton champions.
The former champions representing the provinces on the committee will hail from Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan respectively.
Legal challenges against the previous poll outcome argued that management committee elections for national sports federations must be conducted exclusively through an Election Commission notified by the Pakistan Sports Board.
The petitioner previously approached the panel of adjudicators notified by the Pakistan Sports Board, which had directed both the federation and the board to ensure transparent elections under the 2022 Constitution.
Despite the adjudicators' directions, the federation proceeded to notify its own Election Commission and conducted elections on October 24, 2025.
Further contentions raised during the hearings pointed out that the previous polls were held without proper advertisement and without following criteria prescribed under relevant rules.
All candidates declared successful in the contested October 2025 elections had been returned unopposed, according to the petitioner's arguments accepted by the court.
The newly ordered electoral process must encompass the entire procedure from the announcement of the election schedule to the final declaration of results within the stipulated 90-day timeframe.
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