LBA elections: Professional Group wins by a whisker

Ishtiaq Khan defeats Jehangir Jhoja with a margin of 20 votes.

LAHORE: Chaudhry Ishtiaq A Khan of Hamid Khan’s Professional Group has won the presidential slot in the Lahore Bar Association (LBA) polls with 20 votes, defeating Asma Jehangir’s Friends’ Group. Ishtiaq Khan secured 2,110 votes while Arshad Jehangir Jhoja of the Friends’ Group got 2,090 votes.  

During the first count, Ishtiaq Khan won with a lead of 53 votes. During the second count, Jhoja won with one vote; but Ishtiaq Khan was declared winner after the third vote count. Jhoja said he was not worried about his defeat as he had given Ishtiaq Khan a tough time.

Six candidates contested the two seats of vice president. Jahangir Bhatti became senior vice president with 2,310 and Malik Sultan became vice president with 1,360 votes.

There were three contenders for the seat of vice president from Model Town. Syed Haidar Shah won by securing 1,739 votes. Adeeb Bhindar and Jawad Malik became secretaries with 2,673 and 1,348 votes, respectively.  There were two contenders for the seat of joint secretary. Rana Ahsan Ali secured 3,037 votes and won. There were three contenders for the post of finance secretary and Chaudhry Fazahir Jutt won with 1,700 votes. More than 14,600 lawyers were expected to exercise their right to vote at the district and sessions court on January 10, but only 4,297 votes were cast.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2015.