LAHORE: Members of the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) will elect their office-bearers for the year 2015-16 with an electronic voting system on Saturday (today).

This year, 10,524 members, of 19,148, have got registered with the electronic voting mechanism.

Election board chairman Shahzad Shaukat stated on Friday unregistered members would be able to cast vote through ballot papers. Outgoing bar president Shafqat Mahmood Chohan introduced the biometric voting system.

A one-on-one contest will be seen for the president slot of the bar between the candidates of traditional rivals - Hamid Khan-led Professional Group and Asma Jahangir-led Independent Group.

Muhammad Shahid Maqbool Sheikh and Pir Masood Chishti have been fielded by Professional and Independent groups. Mr Sheikh has already served as president of Lahore Bar Association (LBA) in 1999 while Mr Chishti has been member of the Punjab Bar Council and also the federal law secretary in last regime of PPP.

The chief supporters of Mr Chishti include Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) vice chairman Azam Nazir Tarar, Ahsan Bhoon, Ramzan Chaudhry, Syed Kalbe Hassan and Burhan Moazzam Malik.

Being affiliated to the PPP, Mr Chishti enjoys support of Senator Babar Awan faction, however, Peoples’ Lawyers Forum, led by former governor Sardar Latif Khan Khosa, is supporting Mr Sheikh. A former senator of the PPP, Kazim Khan is also canvassing for the professional group’s candidate.

The disintegration in PPP lawyers’ forum has led forum’s secretary to serve notices on its three members - Abid Saqi, a former president of LHCBA, Mushtaq Awan and Ilyas Khan - for supporting Mr Chishti in violation of the group’s policy.

Mr Sheikh enjoys the support of Pakistan Bar Council members Pir Kalim Khurshid, Amin Javed, Maqsood Buttar and Mian Abdul Quddus, former presidents of the LHCBA Fakharunisa Khokhar, Ahmad Awais and Asghar Ali Gill, former secretary of the LHCBA Rana Asadullah Khan, former finance secretary Rabbiya Bajwa and former secretary of the LBA Shamimur Rehman Malik. Lawyers’ wings of PML-N, PTI and JI are also supporting him.

Muhammad Irfan Sheikh and Sofia Masood are vying for the slot of vice president. Muhammad Ahmad Qayum and Mian Asghar Ali are in the run for secretary. Mr Ahmad is the son of former LHC judge Malik Qayum. The retired judge also served as attorney general during the Pervez Musharraf’s regime. Nabila Manzoor Jafri, Amina Ajmal, Azeem Akram and Syed Akhtar Hussain Sherazi are contesting for the finance secretary.

The polling will be held from 9am to 5pm with a one-hour break. Four polling stations have been established each for manual and electronic voting.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2015

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