Asma Jahangir group attains majority in PBC

Change of loyalty enabled Democratic group to gain majority in body

ISLAMABAD: Human rights crusader Asma Jahangir’s Democratic Group of Lawyers has secured a majority in the Pakistan Bar Council.

The country’s top body for lawyers consists of 23 elected lawyers from different provinces. The tenure of each member is for five years; however, the vice-chairman holds office for one year.

Earlier, Hamid Khan’s group, known as the Professional Group, had majority with one member in the PBC. However, in a dramatic turn of events, head of the PBC executive committee Abdul Fayaz, who was associated with Hamid Khan’s group, on Saturday switched loyalties and came out in support of Asma Jahangir’s group.

The change of loyalty has enabled the Democratic group to gain majority in the body.

This has led Asma’s group to capture the chairmanship of 21 PBC standing committees.

Earlier, Hamid Khan’s group had dominated bar politics from 1995 to 2008.

In the recent elections, Asma’s group lost majority after the passage of eight years but the change in loyalty has again brought the group to power.

A member of Hamid Khan Group, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, believes the government’s role cannot be ruled out for the change in loyalty of Abdul Fayaz.

Ahsan Bhoon, who is an active member of Asma’s group, told The Express Tribune that they are not interested to remove PBC Vice-Chairman Farogh Nasim as his one-year tenure is about to end. However, Kamran Murtaza of the same group believes that Nasim should resign from his post on the basis of morality as his group is no longer in power.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 4^th, 2016.