Court seeks help in bar polls case

LAHORE

The Lahore High Court chief justice Monday sought assistance from Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and chairman election board of the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) to decide the issue of holding polling manually or electronically.

Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah was hearing a petition of Sardar Khurram Latif Khosa, one of the candidates for the presidential slot of the LHCBA.

Mr Khosa, who is contesting election with the majority support of PPP faction of lawyers, stated that the PBC ordered manual polling on the request of Asma Jahangir group’s candidate, Ramzan Ch. He said PBC Vice-Chairman Ahsan Bhoon passed the impugned order without any lawful reason. Khosa claimed that 11 out of 14 candidates of the election were in support of biometric polling process. He argued that the PBC could not interfere into the LHCBA affairs. Former president of LHCBA Shafqat Chohan represented the candidate of Hamid Khan group and told the court that the bar election had been conducted through electronic polling for the last two years after an approval given by its general house.

During the hearing, members of Hamid Khan and Asma Jahangir groups also exchanged harsh words. The chief justice would resume hearing today (Tuesday).

Meanwhile, LHCBA election board Chairman Javed Iqbal Raja told a press conference that arrangements had been made to hold the polling in both ways either biometric or manual. He said the board had been waiting for the decision by the high court in the case. 

He said the board had already made its arrangements for both electronic and manual process of polling in order to avoid delay. “We are fully prepared to implement the court decision in both cases,” Raja said. He maintained that the election, in any case, would be held in a fair and transparent manner. He said foolproof security arrangements were being taken for the polling day. No irrelevant person would be allowed entry to the high court during the polling, he added. Raja said separate polling booths would be established for female lawyers. He said there would be 21,481 eligible voters this year.