PESHAWAR: Stage is set for the annual elections of Peshawar High Court Bar Association (PHCBA) scheduled for today (Saturday) as three major alliances of different lawyers’ groups are contesting for the key slots.

A ‘Grand Alliance’ of different groups, including Insaf Lawyers Forum, Islamic Lawyers Forum, Justice Forum, Justice and Democratic Lawyers Forum, Professional Lawyers Forum and Pakistan Muslim League Lawyers Forum (Q), has fielded a former judge of the high court, Khalid Mehmood, for the post of president.

Advocate Astagfirullah Khan of the alliance of Nationalist Lawyers Forum and Muslim League Lawyers Forum (N), and Muzammil Khan belonging to the alliance of Peoples Lawyers Forum and Watan Pal Lawyers Forum are also contesting for the post of president.

Other candidates of the Grand Alliance are; Taskeenuddin Khattak for the post of vice-president, Arshid Hussain Yousafzai for secretary general, Mohammad Farooq Malik for joint secretary, Alam Khan for secretary finance; Malik Ziaul Hassan for secretary library and Bilal Khan for the office of press secretary.

Candidates fielded for different posts by the alliance of Nationalist and Muslim Lawyers Forums are; Yousaf Riaz Khalil for vice-president, Yousaf Ali for secretary general, Asfandyar Khan for joint secretary, Mohammad Qabees Khan Shinwari for press secretary, Saima Jafri for finance secretary and Khalid Khan for secretary library.

Furthermore, the alliance of Peoples and Watan Pal lawyers’ forums has nominated Sardar Ali Raza for the post of secretary general and Shah Faisal for joint secretary.

Polling will be held from 8:00am to 5:00pm in the polling stations set up in Peshawar, Charsadda, Mardan, Nowshera, Kohat, Hangu and Swabi. A total of 1,601 members of the association will exercise their right to vote. Advocate Asghar Ali will perform the duty of election commissioner for these polls.

Advocates Mohammad Israr and Ms Sehrish Munawar have already been elected unopposed as members of the executive council from Peshawar, whereas Hassan Gul was elected unopposed from Charsadda, Mohammad Asif Bangash from Kohat, Gul Hussain from Hangu and Fayyaz Ali from Nowshera.

Advocates Mohammad Nisar and Mohammad Salim are contesting for the single seat of executive council from Mardan.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2016