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LAHORE, Jan 13: The Lahore Bar Association re-poll will be held on Jan 17 and all candidates in the field have been asked to re-contest. The decision was taken by a new election board which was constituted after the former board's chairperson Ahmad Hasan Khan resigned from the office late on Monday evening.
Headed by Rai Bashir Ahmad, the new board decided on Tuesday that the election to seven LBA posts, including that of the president, will be held on Saturday (Jan 17).
The elections were abandoned on Jan 10, for the first time in the recent history, after unruly lawyers stormed the polling station at district courts. Polling was also marred by ballot paper tampering and bargain with candidates to buy votes.
The former election board was supposed to give a new date for the re-poll on Monday. But when a member did not turn up for the meeting and voices of 'incompetence' against the board members were raised, Ahmad Hasan Khan resigned in protest and informed the LBA's outgoing executive committee accordingly.
The executive committee met on Tuesday and appointed a new election board which decided a new date for re-poll. Iftikhar Ahmad Khan and Mian Naeem Bashir are the other two members of the boards.
The 11-member executive committee, including one from Model Town, have been elected unopposed. There will be no contest for the office of librarian who has also been returned without contest.
CONDEMNED: Pakistan Bar Council's executive committee vice-chairperson Kazim Khan, Lahore High Court Bar Association president Hafiz Abdur Rehman Ansari and other senior lawyers have expressed disappointment over the 'ugly incidents' of Jan 10.
They said at a news conference on Tuesday that "heads of the community members hang in shame for irregularities and hooliganism of some adventurists who have brought into disrepute the sanctity of the black coat".
They said that ballot papers were seen being marked in the open and some individuals were asking candidates to give them money for their marked ballot papers.
Kazim Khan said some junior lawyers also insulted and abused him and Hamid Khan, a former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, when they tried to intervene to save the situation.
This, he said, was condemned even by their opponents in the election, including Mr Khosa and Mian Israr Ahmad. The lawyers' leaders claimed that the supporters of Chaudhry Muhammad Naeem were seen committing electoral irregularities and it were they who used abusive language against them. "This is wrong that we, the supporters of Mirza Hanif Beg, were involved in any such malpractice", Kazim Khan added.
