KARACHI, Nov 26: Sindh Bar Council executive committee chairman Abrar Hasan and several members urged Advocate-General Anwar Mansoor Khan on Friday to advance the SBC election date immediately.

They pointed out that the new date of December 27 falls during winter vacation, which is due to commence on Dec 22. A large number of lawyers would be away from their districts.

It would be highly inconvenient for the candidates and voters to conduct the election campaign and cast their votes during the vacation. They urged the AG to reschedule the balloting in his capacity as the ex officio chairman of the SBC and returning officer for its polls and fix a date convenient to its members.

The chairman and members earlier resolved that the postponement of the election, earlier rescheduled from Nov 27 to Dec 11 following the promulgation of an ordinance amending the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act, was entirely unjustified and unauthorized.

The returning officer had no authority to arbitrarily change election dates. The decision discredited a premier institution of the Bar. The two resolutions were adopted by outgoing members of the council, including Mustafa Lakhani, M. Sadiq Hidayatullah, M. Yasin Azad, Khawaja Mansoor, Mohammad Ali Abbasi, Naheed Afzal Khan, Mohammad Aqil and M. Ismail Memon.

PETITIONS ADJOURNED: A division bench of the Sindh High Court, meanwhile, adjourned the hearing of three identical petitions challenging the newly-prescribed qualification for candidates and reduction of SBC seats under the new ordinance to November 30.

Appearing before the bench, comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Amir Hani Muslim, Pakistan Bar Council Vice-Chairman Rasheed A. Razvi, submitted that the ordinance enacted a recommendation made by the PBC in consultation with the elected chiefs of all four provincial bar councils.

He made it clear that he was against legislation by an ordinance, particularly when a bill containing to the same provisions was pending before the Senate. The PBC recommendations, Advocate Razvi said, were aimed at streamlining the working of the provincial bar councils and prevent their membership from getting unwieldy.

Too large a membership was a burden on the funds of every provincial bar council. The councils were finding it difficult to hold even their regular meetings and discharge their functions as regulatory bodies of the legal profession.

The Punjab Bar Council had to spend about Rs 30 million on the travel expenses of its members from various districts to Lahore to attend its meetings during its last four-year term, he said.

One of the petitions challenge the requirement of 10 years' legal practice for the contestants while two question the reduction of Khairpur and Larkana seats from two to one.