LAHORE: The Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) on Saturday suspended the process of the Lahore Bar Association (LBA) election 2023-24 over rigging charges from various candidates whereas the election board announced the result.

The PbBC, the provincial regulatory body of the bars, also nominated Babar Waheed as the caretaker president of the LBA to run the day-to-day affairs and directed all the candidates to appear before its executive committee on Jan 16. The order passed by executive committee chairman Rana Saifullah Khan said the LBA election would be held on Jan 23.

Mr Khan also directed the chairman of the election board, Naveed Inayat Malik, to hand over the complete manual and biometric record of the election to Mr Waheed, a PbBC member.

The order noted that various candidates as well as the voters complained that they (voters) were not allowed to cast their votes independently, rather they were deprived of their right to vote. It said many complaints were made to the chairman of the election board and the polling was suspended after every 30 minutes. The order further said the election board chairman and his companions failed to discharge their duties and ensure a transparent election.

On the other hand, the election board announced the results amid protests held by various candidates and their supporters. The supporters of the candidates resorted to aerial firing.

As per the result, Rana Intizar Hussain of Hamid Khan-led Professional Group was elected president with 3,189 votes Munir Hussain Bhatti of Independent Group, known as Asma Jahangir Group, stood runner-up with 2,168 votes. Third candidate on the president slot, Rana Muhammad, got 636 votes.

Nadeem Anjum was declared successful as vice president, Malik Kafeel as secretary, Tahira Shaheen Dhillon as finance secretary while Atif Kamal Bhatti as joint secretary.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2023