LAHORE: A court has stopped Reverend Nadeem Kamran from exercising authority as the 10th bishop of the Lahore Diocese of the Church of Pakistan on a petition filed by official representatives of the Synod, the premier supervisory body of the Church of Pakistan.
On April 11, Lahore Senior Civil Judge Mehbood Elahi admitted a petition filed by Raiwind Diocese Dean Rev Emmanuel Khokhar, Peshawar Diocese representative Rev Altaf Gohar and Multan Diocese representative Rev Safdar Gulfam seeking a restraint order against Rev Nadeem from acting as the Lahore bishop. According to the plaintiffs, Rev Nadeem’s election as bishop was illegal as it was conducted in violation of the rules and constitution of the Church of Pakistan.
Elahi has stopped Rev Nadeem from exercising the bishop’s powers till May 8, the next date of hearing of the case.
The election of Rev Nadeem on January 18, has caused a crisis in the Church of Pakistan with seven dioceses of the church union — Raiwind, Multan, Karachi, Hyderabad, Faisalabad, Sialkot and Peshawar — on one side and the Lahore diocese on the other.
One of the plaintiffs, Rev Khokhar said that bishops and the executive committees of all seven dioceses were unanimous in their stance over the “unconstitutional and illegal” election conducted by the Lahore diocese.
“This unconstitutional action of the Lahore diocese has put the over 50-year-old church union at risk. The entire church body is appalled by the manner in which the election was conducted and Rev Nadeem was installed as the diocesan bishop by three retired bishops,” he said.
Rev Khokhar said that efforts for conciliation between the two sides had suffered a setback after the Diocese of Lahore reiterated in a letter addressed to the Registrar Joint Stock Companies Lahore that it was “a fully autonomous body, which is legally, legislatively, administratively or otherwise free from the control of any Church, Council, Synod or any other Society external to itself”.
“The Lahore diocese constitution, in its present form, disrespects the Synod of the Church of Pakistan by undermining the pledge made on All Saints Day, 1970, according to which the union was declared to be irrevocable and indissoluble.
“In light of this pledge, the Lahore Diocesan Council’s letter to the Registrar is detrimental to the unity and integrity of the Church of Pakistan,” Rev Khokhar emphasised.
He added that according to the CoP constitution, the Synod is the supreme supervisory and legislative body of the church.
“The constitution also empowers the Synod to ensure that constitutions of all diocesan councils are in conformity with the rules of the Church of Pakistan,” he added.
Rev Nadeem Kamran remained unavailable to comment on the court’s directive.
