Independent group takes top slots in SCBA election

Asma Jehangir-affiliated duo become president, secretary

LAHORE: The Independent Group led by Asma Jahangir secured the president and secretary slots in the annual Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) elections for the year 2017-18.

Independent Group candidates Pir Kaleem Khursheed and Safdar Hussain Tarar will be the new president and secretary, respectively. Khursheed bagged 1,145 votes, defeating Hafiz Abdur Rehman of Hamid Khan’s Professional Group by a margin of just 83 votes. Rehman got 1,062 votes.

For secretary, Safdar Hussain Tarar obtained 1,098 votes, while Professional Group candidate Mian Muhammad Aslam only got 638 votes.

Khursheed’s supporters garlanded him and raised him on their shoulders after unofficial results began showing that their candidate had won.



For the slot of vice-president from Punjab, Qamar Zaman Qureshi beat his rival Malik Imtiaz with 1,159 votes to Imtiaz’s 886 votes.

Over 2,989 voters participated in the elections – 1,287 voters from Lahore, 479 voters from Sindh, 460 from Islamabad and Rawalpindi, 286 from K-P, 204 voters from Multan, 182 from Balochistan, and 91 voters from Bahawalpur took part in the election.

Former chief justice of Pakistan Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, former LHC Chief Justice Khawaja Sharif, former Punjab governors Khawaja Tariq Raheem, Shahid Hamid and Sardar Latif Khan Khosa, Justice (retd) Malik Qayyum, Aitzaz Ahsan, Asma Jahangir and many bar members cast their votes in Lahore.

There were tight security arrangements at the Supreme Court Lahore Registry during the 8am to 5pm polling. There were two SPs, two DSPs, three SHOs and 180 police officials deployed for the polls in Lahore.



Talking to reporters, newly-elected President Pir Kaleem Khursheed said that he would fulfil the promises he made with the lawyers and would protect their rights. He said he would continue to struggle for the supremacy of law and the Constitution.

Talking to the media, PPP leader Chaudhary Aitzaz Ahsan said there is a big challenge ahead for the NAB chairman, adding that the accountability watchdog is working in two different modes in Sindh and Punjab. He said there is a double standard at play as former PM Nawaz Sharif’s name was not put on the Exit Control List. He said the Abbottabad and Model Town reports should be made public. On a query regarding Maryam Nawaz’s politics, he said she brought PML-N out of the corner that Punjab CM Shehbaz Sharif and Chaudhary Nisar were pushing it, adding that she played on the front foot. He added that elections in one constituency do not represent how the vote will go in the rest of Pakistan.

Meanwhile, polling in Karachi started 15 minutes late and was allowed to continue till 5:15pm to adjust for the delay.