LAHORE, Dec 14: As three important elections of lawyers approach, beginning with reelection for the Supreme Court Bar Association on Dec 18, the major rival groups have thrown their weight behind candidates of their choice.

The Pakistan Bar Council decided earlier this month on a Supreme Court directive that the SCBA leadership for 2006-07 would be elected again ‘to resolve the dispute amicably and ensure the unity of the bar’. The candidates for this election will be the same who contested the election held on Nov 30.

The PBC said it would supervise the re-poll, and had also appointed its executive committee chairman Syed Kalab-i-Hasan as the returning officer. He will receive results from presiding officers from eight polling stations across the country on Dec 18. He will preside over a meeting of the five-member election supervisory body on Dec 21 in Islamabad to announce the results through a notification.

Vice-chairmen of the bar councils in Sindh, Punjab, the NWFP and Balochistan have been appointed as presiding officers along with presidents of high court bar associations at benches at Abbottabad, Bahawalpur, Multan and Rawalpindi. They will conduct the re-poll and send unofficial results to the returning officer.

The five-member supervisory body includes Justice Gul Zareen Kiyani (retired) from Islamabad, Justice Amir Alam Khan (retired) from Lahore, Akhtar Ali from Karachi, Raja Afsar from Balochistan and Zafar Abbas Zaidi from the NWFP. —Correspondent