LHCBA elections today

LAHORE

Polling for Lahore High Court Bar Association annual election for year 2017-18 will be held today, amid tight security arrangements including deployment of Rangers.

Some 21,481 eligible voters will exercise their right to vote to elect new leadership of the bar. The election board has decided to hold polling through both biometric and manually. Around 13,000 members have been registered with the biometric system.

Some 14 candidates are vying for four different seats. Among them, four candidates including Ch Zulfiqar Ali, Muhammad Ramzan Sohal Ch, Aazar Latif Khan and Sardar Khurram Latif Khan Khosa are contesting for the slot of president. Muhammad Ramzan Chaudhry has been fielded by Independent Group of Asma Jahangir while Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali is the candidate of Hamid Khan’s Professional Group. Two other candidates including Azar Latif Khan and Sardar Khurram Latif Khan Khosa have the support of the PPP but the party is said to be divided over the support of the two candidates. 

A tough contest is expected between Zulfiqar Ali and Muhammad Ramzan. The former had once been elected as president of the Lahore Bar Association while the latter will eventually have the support of the PPP.

For the slot of vice-president, Rashid Lodhi and Ch Muhammad Saleem are the candidates. Both are repeaters but Lodhi’s position is said to be strong because of the support of young lawyers. Five candidates including Hassan Iqbal Warraich, Aamir Saeed Raan, Irfan Nasir Cheema, Malik Zahid Aslam Awan and Mian Muzaffar Hussain are in the field for the seat of Secretary. For the office of Finance Secretary, three candidates including Intizar Kalyar, Hafiz Allah Yar Sipra and Zaheer Butt are in the run.

Pakistan Rangers Punjab will provide security to the bar members on the election day.  The LHCBA also decided to suspend the membership of lawyers who would not cooperate with the security officials for their identification and security search.