Ahsan Bhoon group leads in PBC elections

Elections held at all provincial bar councils to elect 23-member body

QUETTA/ ISLAMABAD/ LAHORE/ KARACHI:

As counting for the election of a 23-member body of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) continued till late Monday night, Ahsan Bhoon group appeared to be in the lead over its rival Professional group.

For 11 seats of Punjab, polling was held at the office of the advocate general where a 75-member house of Provincial Bar Council of Punjab cast their votes to elect members of the PBC.

Advocate General Naveed Rasool Mirza acted as presiding officer.

As per unofficial results on total 23 seats of the PBC, victory of Ahsan Bhoon and other members of his group – including Azam Nazir Tarar, Abid Saqi, Kamran Murtaza and Syed Kalb-e-Hasan – was clear after getting top six of priority. Position of two independent aspirants, Maqsood Buttar and Raheel Kamran Sheikh, was also strong as per the unofficial results.

Ishtiaq A Khan, Shafqat Mahmood Chohan and Tahir Nasarullah Warraich of Hamid Khan led-Professional group were elected as members of the PBC.

In Karachi, nine candidates were vying for the six seats of the lawyers’ top regulatory body from Sindh.

According to unofficial results, five candidates – Justice (retd) Rashid A Razvi, former provincial advocate general Muhammad Yousuf Laghari, Nisar Durrani, Muhammad Aqil and Shabbir Shar – have won.

The decision on two candidates, Barrister Farogh A Naseem and Akhtar Hussain, is still awaited. The attorney general will announce the final results on December 23.

Out of four candidates from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, three have been elected to the PBC. They are: former deputy speakers Khushdil Khan and Sher Muhammad Khan, and Supreme Court lawyer Sattar Khan.

Meanwhile, Awami National Party leaders including former chief minister Amir Haider Hoti and Sardar Hussain Babak congratulated Khushdul for his success in the PBC elections.

Seven members of Balochistan Bar Council cast their ballot at the Balochistan High Court premises to elect a member of the lawyers’ top body.

According to the Balochistan Bar Association’s statement, Kamran Murtaza, who was contesting election from Shakeel Panel, has been declared winner.

Murtaza, ex-president of Supreme Court Bar Association, secured four votes out of the total seven while his opponent Sanaullah Ababki, of Professional Lawyers Forum, bagged three votes.

According to unofficial results, members of the Islamabad Bar Council elected Shoaib Shaheen as a member of the PBC. However, his rival Raja Shafqat Khan Abbasi alleged that a ballot paper was reissued after one of the voters ‘changed his mind’ at the eleventh hour.

“When the foundation of the PBC election is based on corruption, what can we expect next,” Abbasi wondered. He alleged that a member, Syed Wajid Ali Gillani, was reissued ballot paper after he filed an application to the polling officer saying ‘he inadvertently filled the ballot paper wrong’ and needed a new one for exercising his right to franchise.

Islamabad Advocate General Mian Abdul Rauf, who performed duties as presiding officer, reissued ballot paper, Abbasi said.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2015.