LAHORE: The Hamid Khan-led Professional group returned to the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) after a gap of three years with Maqsood Buttar notching the top slot of president with a significant margin in an annual election held on Saturday for 2021-22.

The Independent group, better known as late Asma Jahangir’s group, retained the top slot for three consecutive years since 2018.

Buttar bagged 5,639 votes and his rival Sardar Akbar Ali Dogar of the Independent group obtained 3,888 in a one-on-one contest.

A total of 9,583 out of 21,667 cleared voters cast their votes in the polling held on the biometric system.

Buttar enjoyed support of the lawyers` wings of PPP, PTl, Jamaat-i-Islami and a faction of PML-N headed by bar’s former secretary Rana Asadullah Khan, also the brother of MPA Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan.

Former governor of Punjab Sardar Latif Khosa’s faction of Peoples Lawyers Forum (PLF) also supported Buttar.

Main chapter of PML-N Lawyers` Forum led by its president Naseer Ahmad Bhutta and a bloc of PLF headed by Abid Saqi usually backed the late Asma’s group. All factions of Insaf Lawyers Forum, including the major one of Barrister Ali Zafar, were also behind Dogar. Zafar is also a senior member of the late Asma’s group.

Mudassir Abbas Maghiana was elected as vice president with 4,261 ballots against his two rivals Sohail Shafiq Chaudhry and Ashraf Jalal who could get 4,189 and 1,020 votes, respectively.

Khwaja Mohsin Abbas of the Independent group notched the slot of secretary. He secured 5,555 votes against 3,935 obtained by Akhtar Padda of the Professional group.

Faisal Tauqir Sial was elected as finance secretary with 4,160 votes. Two runner-up candidates – Rana Waseem Yousaf Khan and Falak Naz Gill - obtained 4,050 and 1,309 votes, respectively.

After the announcement of the results, the supporters of the winners burst into loud slogans and danced to the drum beats in jubilation. Fireworks were also played by the jubilant lawyers.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2021