LAHORE, Oct 29: The stage is set for the Supreme Court Bar Association election on Monday (tomorrow), which will see a straight contest between two former judges of the Lahore High Court, Malik Saeed Hassan and Malik Muhammad Qayyum.
They are contesting for the coveted office of the SCBA president.
The polling will be held at seven polling stations established across the country for facilitating 1,519 senior lawyers, who are members of the bar.
Malik Hassan’s supporters claim that he enjoys the support of an overwhelming majority of lawyers from Sindh, Balochistan, the NWFP and Punjab. They say he has an edge over his rival, though he has not conducted the campaign in a way his rival has done.
As for professional implications, Malik Hassan has nothing at stake in the election. As against that the elections are highly important for Malik Qayyum because his win may vindicate his personal prestige, which was tarnished by a Supreme Court decision on a petition by PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari.
The apex court decision forced Malik Qayyum, who has been a student of Malik Saeed Hassan, to quit as the LHC judge.
That is why, sources say, he is putting everything in the election and has worked hard to make it a tough contest by approaching each and every voter.
The contest has also seen involvement of political parties, mostly the components of the ARD and the MMA, particularly the Jamaat-i-Islami.
Ironically, the ARD which has been showing unanimity over the support for the SCBA presidential candidates for last four years, stands divided in this particular fight.
The PPP is supporting Malik Hassan, a former party secretary-general, and the PML-N has thrown its weight behind his rival whose brother Muhammad Pervez Malik is the sitting MNA of the party.
Most of the Jamaat lawyers are said to be supporting Malik Hassan, who also enjoys the backing of a few jurists who still cling to the leftist ideas. Lawyers belonging to the Tehreek-i-Insaf are also said to be behind Malik Hassan, who had resigned as the LHC judge when martial law was imposed in the country on July 5, 1977.
As for the bar politics, the Hamid Khan group is supporting Malik Hasan although Punjab Bar Council vice-chairperson Asghar Ali Gill, who was elected with the support of the groups headed by Hamid Khan and Sardar Lateef Khan Khosa, has switched his loyalty in favour of Malik Qayyum.
Senior bar leaders like Abid Hassan Minto, Senator Sardar Lateef Khan Khosa, Abdul Haleem Pirzada, Rashid A. Razvi, Qazi Muhammad Anwar, sitting SCBA president Qazi Muhammad Jameel, Chaudhry Khalid Mahmood, S.M. Masood, Syed Ahmad Saeed Kirmani, Raja Mahmood Akhtar, Pir Syed Kaleem Khurshid, Muhammad Ahsan Bhoon and Pakistan Bar Council vice-chairperson Hafiz Abdur Rehman Ansari are supporting Malik Hassan.
Senator Khalid Ranjha, A. Karim Malik, Chaudhry Muhammad Ashraf Wahla, Muhammad Akram Sheikh, Amir Alam Khan, Mian Israrul Haq, Zaman Qureshi and Muhammad Ramzan Chaudhry are actively supporting Malik Qayyum.
UNOPPOSED ELECTION: As for other SCBA offices, Ali Akbar Qureshi of the Hamid Khan group has already been elected unopposed secretary after his lone rival, Syed Zulfiquar Ali Bokhari, withdrew his candidature. The office of the secretary is allotted to Punjab.
As for vice presidents, one each from the four provinces, advocates Saeed Akhtar from the NWFP and Raja Rab Nawaz from Balochistan have also been declared elected unopposed.
The contest for other vice presidents is between Lahore-based advocates Zakaur Rehman, Mirza Hafeezur Rehman and Ghulam Ali Bhatti from Punjab and Rana Shamim Ahmad Khan and Faqir Muhammad Sheikh from Sindh.
Mahmood Ahmad Sheikh and Chaudhry Muhammad Arshad are in the run for the office of the finance secretary and the contest for additional secretary is between Zulfiqar Ali Bhutta and Malik Qamar Afzal. Both the contests are between the lawyers from Rawalpindi.
Four of the eight members of the SCBA executive council have also been elected without contest. They include two from Quetta. Others elected unopposed are advocates Ruhul Ameen and Muhammad Lateef Yousafzai.
Mr Ameen is also an executive member in the outgoing SCBA. Mr Yousafzai is the vice-president in the present body and has been associated with the apex body of lawyers in one office or the other.
As such only four members of the executive council from the Punjab and Sindh are to be elected.
The polling will be held between 9am and 4pm with one-hour interval from 1pm in Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan, Bahawalpur and Lahore.