Woman candidate elected unopposed PHCBA finance secretary

PESHAWAR: For the first time in the Peshawar High Court Bar Association (PHCBA)’s history a woman candidate has been elected unopposed the finance secretary for the upcoming election 2019 of the body.

Ambreen Gulzar, a candidate of the Malgari Wakeelan, Awami National Party-affiliated lawyers forum, was elected unopposed the secretary finance as her both rival candidates including Israr, a candidate from Insaf Lawyers Forum (ILF) and Azizuddin Kakakhel, an independent candidate, withdrew nomination papers in her favour. She hails from Charsadda.

Talking to The News, Ambreen Gulzar said during her campaign to the other districts bar associations including Kohat Bar, Charsadda Bar and Nowshera Bar, majority of the lawyers informed her about their problems. She promised to take up these problems.

This time three senior lawyers including Abdul Latif Afridi, Khalid Mehmood and Mohibullah Kakakhel are in the field for the president seat in the upcoming PHCBA election scheduled to be held on April 27.

Three candidates withdrew nomination papers on Friday for the president seat. Two candidates including Jamal Khattak from People’s Lawyer Forum and Yousaf Riaz from the PML-N have withdrawn nomination papers in support of Abdul Latif Afridi, a candidate of Malgari Wakeelan of the ANP affiliated lawyers forum. Isaac Ali Qazi, an independent candidate has quit the race for the president seat as well.

Abdul Latif Afridi has served twice the PHCBA president and vice-President of the Pakistan Bar Council in the past. He is supported by the PLF, PML-N lawyers forum and others.

Khalid Mehmood is a retired high court judge and a candidate of the Islamic Lawyers Forum. He is backed by the Insaf, Jamiat, Watan Pal and Justice Lawyer Forum.

Mohibullah Kakakhel is a senior lawyer and contesting the election as an independent candidate.

However, two candidates are in the field for the seat of general secretary. They are Babar Khan Yousafzai, a candidate of Watan Pal Lawyers Forum. He is supported by Insaf, Jamiat, Justice Lawyer Forum and Islamic Lawyer’s Forum. The second candidate for the seat is Abid Ali of Malgari Wakeelan.

Two candidates including Habibullah Mohmand and Furqan Yousafzai are in the run for the seat of Joint Secretary. However, Zahir Shah Marwat and the independent candidate was elected unopposed for the seat of press secretary.

Similarly, two candidates including Arshad Hussain Awan and Muhammad Ziaullah are in the field for the library secretary seat.

Four candidates are in the run for the two executive seats in Peshawar. They are Saifullah Kakakhel, Nazimeen Akhtar and Qurratul Ain. Two candidates including Jehangir Alam and Muhammad Irshad are in the run for an executive seat from Mardan.

Two candidates namely Amir Khan and Muhammad Sagheer are contesting the election for one executive seat for Swabi.

While Anwar Zeb from Nowshera, Saifullah Khan from Charsadda, Syed Mufeed Shah from Kohat and Syed Gul Hussain Orakzai from Hangu have been elected unopposed for the executive seats.