LAHORE: In a third consecutive victory, Independent group (commonly known as late-Asma Jahangir group) notched the top slot of Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) in annual election for year 2020-21 held on Saturday.

Tahir Nasarullah Warraich of the winning group was elected president with 5,900 votes he bagged against his main rival Maqsood Buttar of Hamid Khan-led Professional group.

Buttar polled 3,971 ballots while Chaudhry Walayat Ali, third and independent candidate for the top office, could secure 636 only.

Warraich and Butter are sitting members of Pakistan Bar Council and they contested their first election for the LHCBA.

This year, lawyers wings of three major political parties decided to throw their weight behind Warraich, who has long affiliation to PML-Q lawyers’ wing.

A faction of People’s Lawyers Forum, led by Sardar Latif Khan Khosa, supported the candidate of professional group. Similarly a faction of PML-N lawyers’ forum, led by LHCBA’s former secretary Rana Asadullah Khan, backed Buttar.

Barrister Saeed Hussain Nagra was elected as vice president with 5,939 votes. His rivals Tauseef Kahild Khatana got 1,541 votes, Mudassir Abbas Maghiana 1,891 and Ayub Khan 1,268.

With 6,277 votes, Haroon Dugal made it to the secretary slot.

Akhtar Padda stood runner-up with 2,692 votes and third contestant Barrister Daniyal Ijaz Chadhar obtained 1,513 votes.

Zeeshan Sulehria was elected finance secretary. He secured 3,560 votes against 3,406 obtained by his main opponent Rana Waseem Yousaf. As many as 10,543 members cast their votes out of 19,622 eligible voters. The polling was conducted on biometric system.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2020