OKARA: The three lawyers’ organisations -- the District Bar Association and tehsil bar associations of of Deepalpur and Renala Khurd -- have failed to comply with the directive of the Punjab Bar Council’s Executive Committee (EC) chairman to forward for verification the degrees of the lawyers who are going to contest the PbBC election.

The directive was issued to the presidents and secretaries of the bar associations in Punjab to have the degrees of the candidates verified from the universities before the approval of the candidature.

“In order to ensure transparency in the elections, all the contesting candidates are directed to submit their degrees to the chairman election board (EB) of the association concerned and he will forward the same to this office till 15th of the current month (December) through chairman EC PBC for verification,” says the directive.

The Okara as well as tehsil bar associations have not complied with the order. DBA President Ramzan Nadeem Channer, Deepalpur bar President Fakhar Hayat Wattoo and Renala bar president Mian Naeem Bashir Kamyana told this correspondent that voters’ lists were being finalised.

The PbBC Lahore has fixed Jan 9, 2021, the polling date for the elections of all district and tehsil bars of the province.

DBA President Muhammad Ramzan Nadeem Channer said a majority of the DBA members had not paid the bar association dues to be eligible for casting vote.

Advocate Iftikhar Ahmad Bhatti and Zahida Hasan Joyia on Dec 15 submitted their nomination papers for the office of the president and secretary, respectively, and got submission receipts. They were claiming that they were elected unopposed as DBA office-bearers.

The Lahore High Court chief justice also had issued directions to the Lahore PbBC on a writ petition filed by Advocate Ms Gulzar Butt to have the degrees of the contesting candidates verified. After the verification process, the degrees of many candidates were found bogus.

PbBC Executive Council Chairman Syed Farhad Ali Shah in the latest directive to the presidents and secretaries of the district and tehsil bars association said they should constitute the EB till Dec 9 and later sought a compliance report. Later, he again sought compliance and said a disciplinary action would be taken against those who would fail to comply with the order.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2020