Abdul Latif Afridi elected SCBA president

Senior lawyer Abdul Latif Afridi of the Asma Jahangir Group (Independent Lawyers Group) was elected president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) on Thursday with a lead of 280 votes against Abdul Sattar Khan, who was backed by the Hamid Khan Group (Professional Lawyers Group), according to unofficial results.

Afridi bagged 1,236 votes, according to the results from 11 polling stations that were set up in different cities for the SCBA election. His rival, Sattar, received 959 votes.

The Asma Jahangir Group candidate received 69 votes from Peshawar, 69 from Multan, 26 from Abbottabad, 18 from Sukkur, 64 from Quetta, 10 from DI Khan, 32 from Hyderabad, 143 from Karachi, 36 from Bahawalpur, 546 from Lahore and 226 from Islamabad.

The Hamid Khan Group candidate bagged 72 votes from Peshawar, 93 from Multan, 11 from Abbottabad, 12 from Sukkur, 53 from Quetta, 11 from DI Khan, nine from Hyderabad, 118 from Karachi, 39 from Bahawalpur, 377 from Lahore and 164 from Islamabad.

The results will be officially announced later.

The PML-N and the PPP legal wings were campaigning for the Asma Jahangir Group candidate. Even Insaf Lawyers Forum Chairman Ali Zafar was backing Afridi.

Law Minister Dr Farogh Naseem was supporting the Hamid Khan Group.

Hamid Khan was one of the main supporters of Justice Qazi Faez Isa in the legal battle for his removal. But Sattar, the Hamid Khan Group candidate, had opposed the Pakistan Bar Council resolution against the presidential reference against Justice Isa. Therefore, few senior members of the Professional Lawyers Group had reservations on Sattar’s nomination for the president slot.