LARKANA, Nov 26: Electioneering tempo has reached its crescendo as pro- and anti-PPP candidates gird up their loins for a tight showdown in elections for the High Court Bar Association.

Candidates of different political parties have united under the umbrella of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz to jointly fight the People’s Lawyers Forum (PLF).

Elections are scheduled to be held on Nov 29.

PLF’s Asif Ali Soomro, son of former ambassador Abdul Razzak Soomro who was elected the first president of HCBA after a circuit bench of the high court started working in Larkana in 1995-96, is in the run to get back the president’s slot.

Soomro is poised to face a tough fight from PML-N’s Babu Sarfraz Jatoi after Ali Anwar Sahar and Mohammad Ismail Bhutto pulled out in his favour on Monday.

A close fight is expected between Khalid Iqbal Memon of the PLF and former MNA Shamsuddin Abbasi, son of the late JI Ameer Maulana Jan Mohammad Abbasi, for the seat of general secretary.

Mr Memon, an outspoken stalwart of the PPP, was elected president of the HCBA in 2007.

On Monday, pro-PPP candidates Akeel Ahmed Bhutto and Mushtaque Ahmed Korejo pulled out of the race in favour of Memon.

Qazi Manzoor Ahmed, sitting general secretary of the HCBA, would also quit in Memon’s favour on Tuesday, said Mohammed Ismail Bhutto, president of the PLF.

Qazi Manzoor won election for general secretary with 148 votes last year against his opponent Nisar Ahmed Abro who obtained 92 votes.

Syed Aijaz Ali Shah of the PLF and Nisar Ahmed Abro of the PML-N are in the run for vice-president. A PPP-backed candidate Azizullah Buriro had won the seat with 153 votes in last year’s elections.

Abdul Sattar Janveri of the PML-N, PLF’s Asif Hussain Chandio and an independent candidate Zaffar Khalil Ahmed Jakhrani are in the fray for the office of joint secretary.

PML-N’s Mohammad Aslam Jatoi and PPP’s Naushad Ali Tagar will fight it out for the office of treasurer while over a dozen lawyers from both the groups are in the race for seven seats of the managing committee. Majority of lawyers interviewed by Dawn believed independent candidates might manage to erode support for PPP’s nominee. A lawyer who wished not to be named said the obtaining political conditions in Sindh in the wake of the passage of the Sindh People’s Local Government Act might impact PPP’s popularity.

Presidential candidate Babu Sarfraz Jatoi accused the PPP of pre-poll rigging and said just a few days ahead of elections, his worker Zulfikar Sahito was arrested in an old case just to keep him away from the election campaign.

He alleged that government vehicles were being used in the election campaign in a bid to influence voters.

Additional Session Judge-II Sim Khan Mughul will conduct elections.

The number of eligible voters has risen to 425 this year from 344 in 2011.

Voters from districts of Larkana, Kambar-Shahdadkot, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Kandhkot-Kashmore and two talukas of Dadu district — Khairpur Nathan Shah and Mehar — will take part in the election.