06 October 2004	Wednesday	20 Shaban 1425

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LAHORE, Oct 5: The Supreme Court Bar Association election may witness a tough contest at least in the Punjab, which represents the association through a vice-president and a secretary.

As many as 1,229 lawyers, enrolled as SCBA voters across the country, will cast their vote on Oct 23 when the new leadership of the SCBA will be elected for 2004-05. Qazi Muhammad Jameel, the chairperson of the SCBA's executive committee from the NWFP, stands a fair chance to be elected the president of the bar.

He enjoys the support of the strong Hamid Khan group and senior lawyers like A Karim Malik and Muhammad Kazim Khan. Lahore High Court Bar Association President Ahmad Awais is also said to be behind him.

Qazi Jameel is facing Zahoor Ahmad Qureshi, also from the NWFP, who is yet to declare the group he belongs to. This year it is the turn of the NWFP to preside over the SCBA.

As for the Punjab seat of vice-president, the main contest will be between Sahibzada Anwar Hameed of the Hamid Khan group and Nazir Ahmad Ghazi, who is backed by the lawyers' group headed by PPP Senator Sardar Muhammad Latif Khan Khosa.

Advocates Abdus Sadiq Chaudhry, Chaudhry Ali Muhammad and Nawab Saeedullah Khan are vying for the office of the secretary for a seat in the Punjab. Senator Kamil Ali Agha, Amin Javed, Imtiaz Ahmad, Amanat Ali Bokhari and Abdul Haq Mirza are in the run for the SCBA's executive committee from the Punjab.

MMA: Senator Sardar Latif Khosa said here on Tuesday the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal had damaged the cause of democracy by agreeing with the regime to adopt the 17th Amendment to the constitution which legitimized the military take-over and paved the way for a constitutional role of the armed forces in governance of the country.

He was speaking at a People's Lawyers Forum protest camp. Mr Khosa said the MMA was responsible for the political "crisis" which was brewing in the wake of Gen Pervez Musharraf's backing out of his commitment of quitting the office of the chief of the army staff by offering misplaced interpretations of the constitution.

He said lawyers and political parties would soon join hands in an agitation to seek establishment of democracy, rule of law and get rid of another military adventurism for all times to come.

A number of PPP lawyers staged a three-hour sit-in at the camp outside the Lahore High Court building demanding release of Asif Zardari and Javed Hashmi. Banners and placards inscribed with slogans for an end to political victimization, establishment of rule of law and democracy and seeking President Gen Musharraf to leave the office of COAS by the end of the year were displayed.

S. M. Masood, PML-N leader Naseer Bhutta, Lahore PPP president Azizur Rehman Chan, PLF chief Malik Ghulam Rasool, Mian Jahangir, Shahid Mahmood Bhatti, Aamer Hashmi, Rashed Lodhi, Muslim League Lawyers Forum president Khwaja Mahmood Ahmad, LHCBA president Ahmad Awais and secretary Azam Nazir Tarar, Lahore Bar Association president Mirza Haneef Beg, Ghulam Sarwar Nihang, Chaudhry Ahsan Bhoon, Chaudhry Shehram Sarwar and Pervez Inayat Malik also visited the camp.