ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court here on Tuesday directed the management of Habib Bank Limited to rectify all the voters' lists for the election of its five unions throughout the country.

The single bench of Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Aslam issued the direction on a plea filed by the HBL employees. They prayed that election to their union offices would be held on August 28 while the voter lists, which the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC) was required to hand over to them four days ahead of the elections, had not been received.

They told the court that names of about 1,000 employees, who had benefited from the golden handshake scheme, should not be included in the lists and they should be treated as retired employees.

The NIRC representative told the court that they had already submitted lists on August 23. After hearing their arguments, the chief justice observed that the election could not be stayed but directed the management to inform all polling authorities about the updated and rectified lists till 10 pm.