LAHORE: Pir Kaleem Khurshid of the Asma Jahangir-led Independent group was elected president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) for 2017-18 on Tuesday.

According to unofficial results, Mr Khurshid secured 1,415 votes in a one-on-one contest with Hafiz Abdul Rehman Ansari of the Hamid Khan-led Professional group, who bagged 1,308.

Asma Jahangir-backed candidate Safdar Hussain Tarar was elected SBCA secretary as he got 1,098 votes against his opponent, Mian Mohammad Aslam, who obtained 638 votes.

Qamar Zaman Qureshi of the winning group was elected vice president on a Punjab seat.

Polling was held in 11 cities — Lahore, Karachi, Quetta, Islamabad/Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan, Abbotabad, Multan, Bahawalpur, Sukkhur and Hyder­abad — and the official results would be announced on Nov 4 in Islamabad.

Prominent among those who cast their votes at the Lahore registery were former chief justice of Pakistan Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, former Lahore High Court CJ Khwaja Mohammad Sharif, former Punjab governors Khwaja Tariq Rahim, Shahid Hamid and Sardar Latif Khan Khosa, retired Justice Malik Mohammad Qayum and lawyers’ leaders Ali Ahmad Kurd, Ms Jahangir and Mr Khan.

Senior lawyers believe that the role played by leaders of the Professional group during a recent tussle between the bar and the bench remained instrumental in its defeat.

The group had put its weight behind the president of Lahore High Court Bar Association’s Multan chapter, Sher Zaman, when he was issued a contempt notice for misbehaving with a high court judge and resorting to vandalism.

Supporters of Mr Zaman had even attacked the court of LHC CJ Syed Mansoor Ali Shah in Lahore during one of the hearings of the contempt case.

Hamid Khan and SCBA’s former president Rasheed A. Rizvi also represented Mr Zaman before the Supreme Court against the high court’s proceedings.

On the other hand, senior leaders of the Independent group, including Ahsan Bhoon and Azam Nazir Tarar, had kept a distance from the controversy and condemned the lawyers’ conduct.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2017