Hafeezur Rehman elected LHCBA president

LAHORE: The Independent Group led by Ahsan Bhoon clinched the slot of president by defeating the Professional Group of Hamid Khan in the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) polls held here on Saturday.

Hafeez-ur-Rehman Chaudhary was elected president of the LHCBA for the year 2019-20 as Khadim Hussain Qaisar of the Professional Group returned as runner-up. Mr Rehman bagged 3,871 votes and Mr Qaisar got 2,391 votes. Sajid Bashir of Latif Khosa Group, also contesting for top slot, got 1,225 votes.

Rehman was solidly supported by Pakistan Bar Council members, including Ahsan Bhoon and Azam Nazir Tarar. Previously, the Independent Group was headed by Asma Jahangir. However, after her sad demise, Ahsan Bhoon led the group. Over the years, the Professional Group–led by Hamid Khan, once an unbeatable force, had loosened its grip over the bar politics, mainly due to national politics. Hamid Khan’s affiliation with the ruling PTI had changed the dimensions of bar politics in recent years. The PML-N and PPP have joined hands against Hamid Khan in bar politics. In addition, the other political parties like ANP, MQM, JI, JUI-F also usually support the candidates contesting against Hamid Khan’s group.

Kabir Ahmad Chaudhary secured 2,304 votes to become LHCBA vice-president. His opponent Barrister Chaudhry Saeed Hussain Nagra got 1915, Rana Irshad Manj bagged 722, Sardar Najeeb Akbar Khan got 406, Shaista Qaisar got 1,381 and Waseem Ahmad Butt got 736 votes. Fiaz Ahmad Ranja won the slot of secretary by getting 4,659 votes. His opponent Allah Baksh Laghari got 1,241 and Chaudhry Sohail Umer Gujjar secured 1,525 votes. Ansar Jamil Gujjar was elected finance secretary with 5,370 votes while his opponent candidate Misbha Sarwar Goriya got only 2,081 votes.

Soon after the announcement of the result, the supporters of the winners danced to the beat of drum, distributing sweets and hugging each other in jubilation. At least 7,522 lawyers used their right to franchise for electing the LHCBA leaders for the year 2019-20 out of 16,226 eligible voters.

The turnout remained on the lower side as the Faisalabad, Sargodha and Gujranwala bar associations had boycotted the election on the issue of setting up LHC benches at the divisional headquarters.

Polling started at 8am and the process continued till 5pm with a one-hour lunch break at 1pm as no untoward incident was reported. Several polling booths were set up for the voters to cast votes through biometric system. Foolproof security arrangements were made on polling day as heavy contingents of police were deployed around the Lahore High Court building.