Independent Group candidate wins LHCBA presidency

Hafeez Rehman Chaudhry elected<br /> president after bagging 3,871 votes

LAHORE: The Independent Group of Ahsan Bhoon won the presidential slot by defeating the Professional Group led by Hamid Khan in the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) elections.

Their candidate Hafeezur Rehman Chaudhary was elected president of the LHCBA for the year 2019-20 with Khadim Hussain Qaisar of the Professional Group returning as runner-up. Rehman bagged 3,871 votes and while Qaisar received 2,391 votes. Sajid Bashir of Latif Khosa Group got 1,225 votes.

Kabir Ahmad Chaudhary was elected vice president of the bar association after securing 2,304 votes. Among his opponents, Barrister Ch Saeed Hussain Nagra secured 1,915 votes, Rana Irshad Manj 722, Sardar Najeeb Akbar Khan 406, Shaista Qaisar 1,381 and Waseem Ahmad Butt grabbed 736 votes.



Ansar Jamil Gujjar was elected finance secretary after obtaining 5,370 votes while his opponent Misbah Sarwar Goriya got only 2,081 votes. Fiaz Ahmad Ranja was elected secretary after clinching 4,659 votes. His opponent Allah Baksh Laghari got 1,241 and Ch Sohail Umer Gujjar secured 1,525 votes.

Soon after the announcement of result, supporters of the winners danced to the beat of drum, while distributing sweets and hugging each other in jubilation. At least 7,522 lawyers out of a total of 16,226 eligible voters used their right to vote for electing leaders of their bar association for the year 2019-20.

Polling started at 8am and the process continued till 5pm with a one-hour lunch break at 1pm. No untoward incident was reported during the proceedings. Several polling booths had been set up for voters to cast their vote through the biometric system.

Stringent security arrangements were in place on the polling day with a contingent of police deployed around the Lahore High Court building.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2019.