LAHORE, Oct 31: Mian Israrul Haq swept to victory on Wednesday in the election for the Supreme Court Bar Association and notched up the president’s slot for 2012-13.

He defeated Ahmad Awais of the Hamid Khan-led Professional Group by a comfortable margin of 287 votes.

Israrul Haq was the candidate of the Independent Lawyers’ Group, led by SCBA’s former president Asma Jahangir. Pakistan Bar Council members Ahsan Bhoon, Azam Nazir Tarar, Ramzan Chaudhry, Burhan Moazam Malik, Akhtar Hussain and Mian Abbas were among the chief campaigners of Mr Haq.

Out of nine polling stations set up across the country, Mr Haq won in six. He obtained 1,019 votes against 740 bagged by Ahmad Awais, giving a third successive defeat to the Professional Group in SCBA elections over the past few years.

According to unofficial results, Mr Haq and Mr Awais secured 548 and 414 votes respectively from Lahore, 193 and 116 from Islamabad, 143 and 135 from Karachi, 21 and 25 from Abbottabad, 22 and 32 from Bahawalpur, 68 and 63 from Multan, 73 and 46 from Peshawar, 75 and 33 from Quetta, and 19 and 11 from Hyderabad.

Javed Iqbal Raja of the Independent Lawyers’ Group notched up the slot of secretary by defeating Mohammad Sohail Dar of Professional Group. Raja bagged 1037 votes and Dar 835.

Mohammad Tahir Chaudhry was elected vice-president from Punjab, Ain-ud-Din from Sindh and Abdullah Kakar from Balochistan. Jamal Khattak was elected vice-president unopposed from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Abdul Majeed Khan of the Independent Lawyers’ Group was elected additional secretary. He defeated Saleheen Mughal of the Professional Group. Abdul Rasheed was elected finance secretary.

Political analysts of the legal fraternity said the position of Israrul Haq was strong, but an alliance of lawyers belonging to the PPP, PML-N and Jamaat-i-Islami had played a key role in his easy victory.

They were of the opinion that the PML-N and JI had supported Mr Haq because Mr Awais was a candidate of Hamid Khan, who held a senior post in the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf. Leaders of the two parties thought that Mr Awais would toe the PTI agenda if he won the election.

Addressing lawyers at the Lahore registry of the Supreme Court, Israrul Haq vowed to play his role in upholding democracy and strengthening institutions in the country. He said welfare of the legal fraternity would be his top priority.

Asma Jahangir said the intervention of political parties and judges in bar politics was not acceptable to lawyers. She rejected an allegation about the government’s involvement in the bar election and said lawyers were not a “saleable commodity”. The losers should accept defeat with open heart instead of levelling “baseless allegations”, she added.

Ms Jahangir said her group would continue to struggle for independence of the judiciary and the bar.

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf called Israrul Haq and greeted him on his victory. The prime minister praised the SCBA for holding elections regularly. He also praised outgoing SCBA president Yasin Azad for his efforts for the wellbeing of lawyers.