PHOTO: PPI
ISLAMABAD/RAWALPINDI: Owing to stringent new requirements for executive member seat, only two candidates competed for 10 Islamabad Bar Association (IBA) executive member seats. Both, unsurprisingly, were elected unanimously.
The IBA Elections, held on Saturday, saw groups backed by the Pakistan People Party and Jamaat-e- Islami winning heavily.
Naveed Malik won the election to become the IBA’s new president with 846 votes, beating Chaudhry Fayyaz Padana who secured only 579 votes. The panel backed by the PPP and JI won the seats of president, vice-president and general secretary while group supported by PML-N won the election for joint secretary.
Malik was also backed by PPP stalwarts Babar Awan and Wajid Gilani, while Padana was backed by Ashraf Gujjar of the PML-N.
Muhammad Nasir beat Chaudhry Talat to secure the general secretary seat after polling 799 votes. His competitor could only secure 632 votes.
Shakil Awan won the seat of vice-president with 892 votes while his opponent, Murtaza Wattoo could only muster 387 votes. Rafeeq Sanjrani could only manage 126 votes.
PML-N’s Dilawar Khan won the joint secretary seat with 742 votes, beating Khurram Bashir, who managed 640 votes.
During Saturday’s election, a total of 1,454 votes were cast out of the 2,294 registered votes.
The 17-member ruling body of IBA comprises president, general secretary, vice-president, joint secretary in addition to 10 executive members, a library member, a finance member and an auditor.
Of the 10 executive member seats, only two candidates were declared successful - Raja Sheraz Janjua and Matloob Hussain Malik - who were elected unopposed.
Advocate Chuadhri Khalid Hussain, a media coordinator for the IBA, said that the Pakistan Bar Council had set a condition that a lawyer hoping to contest bar elections must have represented in at least 45 cases over the past three years.
“The step was taken to ensure that only ‘professional lawyers’ are elected to bar associations,” he said, adding that, “many of the lawyers who are politically active fail to meet this condition.”
Pindi bar elections
The Rawalpindi District Bar Association (DBA) also held its elections, electing Advocate Sajjad Akbar Abbasi as the body’s new president for 2017.
Abbasi, who secured 1,001 votes, beat off competition from Zaheeruddin Babar, who could only manage 875 votes.
Advocate Chaudhry Faraghat secured the seat of vice president with 1,360 votes. His opponent, Advocate Fakhar Shah, could only muster 456 votes.
Advocate Irfan Ahmed Niazi won the seat of general secretary after obtaining 922 votes. His opponent, Yasir Chatta, could only secure 674 votes.
Jhelum bar elections
Jhelum saw a close contest, with Atique Alam managing to beat off competition to become the new president of Jhelum District Bar Council (JDBC).
Alam secured 148 votes while his opponent, Faisal Kayani, could only manage 128 votes.
Raffat Jabeen was elected as the vice president of the JDBC, obtaining 147 votes. Ubaidur Rehman, meanwhile became the new general secretary of the JDBC after he won the seat with 136 votes.
WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RAJA NAUBAHAR IN JHELUM
Published in The Express Tribune, January 16th, 2017.
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