LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Monday issued notices to the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) and others on a petition seeking a quota for minority members in the bar elections.

Advocate Ijaz Farhat pleaded in his petition that the population of Christians in Pakistan was around 10 million and a large number of them were associated with the legal profession as lawyers.

He said a quota for the minorities had been allocated in the government jobs and in national and provincial assemblies.

However, he said, no quota had been reserved for the Christians and other minority communities in the election of the bar councils and associations.

Thus, he said, the minority communities had been deprived of their due representation in the bar politics.

The lawyer asked the court to order the PBC and PbBC, both regulatory bodies, to reserve quota for the members of the minority community in the bar elections.

Justice Ayesha A Malik heard initial arguments of the petitioner and sought replies from the respondent bar councils and associations.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2020