Lawyers elect SCBA office-bearers today

LAHORE: As many as 2,697 voters would decide fate of 18 candidates for eight seats for Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) representatives for 2015-16 elections on Thursday (today).
These seats are for the slot of president, four vice-presidents for each province, one secretary, additional secretary, and finance secretary. Seats for members of executive body are other than those.
Major contest would be for the slot of president for which one-on-one contest would take place between Syed Ali Zafar of Asma Jehangir-led Independent Group and Pir Kaleem Khurshid of Hamid Khan-led Professional Group. Like every year, Lahore would be the hub for election activity as 1174 voters are in Lahore, 436 Karachi, 392 Islamabad/Rawalpindi, 256 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 170 Balochistan, 185 Multan, and 84 Bahawalpur.
Syed Ali Zafar, son of SM Zafar, is new to bar politics and it is his first bar election. Lawyer wings of the PPP, PML-Q and Awami National Party had already announced support for Ali Zafar. Ameer Alam Khan, Justice (retired) Sardar Iqbal, Akram Sheikh, Ahsan Bhoon, Ramzan Ch, Syed Kalbe Hassan, Burhan Moazzam Malik and Shahzad Shaukat are also among his supporters. A prominent figure of the Independent Group, Dr Khalid Ranjha, was annoyed at his group and playing a silent role in the election activity.
Pir Kaleem Khurshid, candidate of the Professional Group, has had a long career in bar politics. He has been president of the Lahore High Court Bar Association and a member of the Punjab Bar Council. He is also a sitting member of the Pakistan Bar Council. Besides other small groups of the bar, lawyer factions of the PML-N, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf are supporting him. The PML-N Lawyers Wing headed by Advocate Naseer Ahmad Bhutta supported candidates of the Independent Group in the last several elections. Caste loyalties have always been an important factor in bar politics. A major group of the Jutt caste, led by senior lawyer Ashraf Wahla, is supporting Independent Group. A group of the Arain clan was backing the Professional Group under the leadership of Mian Israrul Haq for many years and another group of the same caste, led by retired Justice Malik Qayum, is supporting the other side.
Independent Group’s Aftab Ahmad Bajwa and Asad Manzoor Butt of the Professional Group are vying for the slot of the secretary. Butt was known for his affiliation with the Jamaat-i-Islami. Bakhtiar Ali Sial and Tabinda Islam were running for vice president from the Punjab seat.
Ch Muhammad Aslam and Syed Rifaqat Hussain Shah are contesting for the seat of additional secretary while Ali Ahmed Khan Rana, Arshad Zaman Kayani and Syed Anwar Ahmed Shah are contesting for one seat of Finance Secretary. Abdullah Kakar and Syed Iqbal Shah are candidate for one seat of vice president for Balochistan while Syed Sardar Hussain, Tahir Faraz Abbasi and Tasleem Hussain are candidate for vice president Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. For one seat of vice president of Sindh, Syed Jamil Ahmed and Ziaul Haq Makhdoom are in the arena.