Amanullah Kanrani elected SCBA president

LAHORE: Amanullah Kanrani of Hamid Khan-led Professional Group has been elected as president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) in annual election for 2018-19 held Wednesday.

As per unofficial results, Kanrani secured 1092 votes in a one-on-one contest with Ali Ahmad Kurd of Independent Group. Kurd bagged 950 votes. Both Kurd and Kanrani were running for the SCBA president slot for the second time. The former had won the election and served as SCBA president in 2008 whereas the latter lost the election against Kamran Murtaza in 2013.

However, Azmatullah Chaudhry of the Independent Group notched the slot of secretary. He got 1089 votes against his rival Shamimur Rehman Malik of the Professional Group, who bagged 873 votes. In his victory speech, Kanrani vowed to run the bar as a non-partisan entity saying the lawyers were not supposed to stand by any government or the judiciary but the rule of law. He hoped the government and the judiciary would continue to work under the Constitution. The legal fraternity would oppose if any of the institutions deviated from the Constitution, said Kanrani, adding “we will not act as subordinate to anyone”. He pledged to strive for the independence of the bar and unity among the lawyers. He said freedom of media and independence of judiciary will be his priority. He promised to resolve at the earliest the long-drawn-out issue of the housing scheme for lawyers in Islamabad. On one each seat of vice president in four provinces, Saleem Akhtar was elected from Balochistan, Khan Afzal Khan from KP, Karamat Awan from Punjab and Salahuddin Khan Gandapur from Sindh. Ahsan Hameed Lilla was elected additional secretary.