LAHORE, March 20: Ms Asma Jahangir was elected chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and Syed Iqbal Haider secretary-general here on Sunday. Shahid Kardar was elected the treasurer of the commission whose office-bearers were elected for 2005-07 by the HRCP council. The provincial vice-chairpersons are Zahoor Ahmad Shawani (Balochistan), Ms Zohra Yousaf (Sindh), Kamran Arif (NWFP) and Hina Jillani (Punjab).

Earlier, the members of the HRCP elected the council which is its governing body. The council members are: Mrs Surriya Ahmad, Ms Rahila Durrani, Zahoor Ahmad Shawani, Tahir Husain Khan, Malik Adeel Mengal and Habib Tahir (Balochistan), Afrasiab Khattak, Ms Mussarat Hilali and Kamran Arif (NWFP).

In the Punjab, Ms Asma Jehangir, Ms Hina Jillani, Ms Saleema Hashmi, Dr Mubashar Hasan, Dr Mehdi Hasan, Air Marshal Zafar Chaudhry, Ms Shahtaj Qazalbash, Shahid Kardar, Nadeem Anthony and Atiqur Rehman were elected. Those elected from Sindh are Syed Iqbal Haider, Ms Zohra Yousaf, Ms Uzma Noorani, Rochi Ram, Ms Parveen Soomro, Ali Hassan, Ms Parveen Soomro, Ali Hassan, Jam Saqi, Ronald de Souza, Ghazi Salahuddin, Amarnath Motu Mal, Asad Iqbal Butt and Adil Pathan.