399 candidates running for 75 PbBC seats

PU declares degrees of seven contestants as fake

LAHORE:

Tough contest on 75 seats of the Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) election is expected on Saturday (today) while Punjab University confirmed fake degrees of seven candidates who are also in the race. Over 106,000 voters will exercise their right to vote to elect their candidates. “It will be so difficult to finalise the choice when we see so many contestants. These candidates are the most professional and practising lawyers who mostly seemed pleading cases in the courts rather than the occasional,” said a leading lawyer advocate Main Dawood. Advocate Supreme Court Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhary, Irfan Sadiq Tarar, Safdar Shahin Pirzada, Zabiullah Naghra, Malik Ahmed Qayyum, Ch Asghar Gill, Abdusamad Bisriya, Feroza Rubab, Rohi Saleh Awan and Shahid Babar are among the most popular contestants.

Fake degrees of seven candidates

Following the orders of Lahore High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan, the Punjab University confirmed that the degrees of seven contestants were fake. At this, the CJ Qasim Khan had sought original record from the University of those whose degrees proved fake. It is worth mentioning that two candidates amongst seven, whose degrees proved fake, have withdrawn their nomination from the election.

Total contestants and voters

There are a total of 399 candidates who are contesting PbBC election across the province. While over 1,06,000 voters (across Punjab) will exercise their right to vote to elect their beloved ones. There are a total of 118 candidates only of the Lahore division while only 95 candidates are contesting in Lahore. Total votes of Lahore division are of 26,000.

Polling hours 

The voting time will start at 8:30 am and will continue till 5:00 pm. For Lahore’s 16 seats the voters will exercise their vote at Lahore High Court. Talking to The Express Tribune Advocate General Punjab Ahmed Awais, who is also serving as Returning Officer (RO) in PbBC election said the election will be fair and free. Strict actions will be taken against violators. On a query, he confirmed that eight candidates have been disqualified over violating code of conduct of the election. Later all contesters submitted their affidavit with complete assurance that no violation will be committed. Following which those candidates who had been disqualified were restored. He said each voter could cast his vote for 20 contestants in Lahore division ie 16 seats for Lahore, one for Shaikhupra, one for Nankana and two for Kasur. He made clear that no candidate would be compromised if found violating code of conduct of the election even on the election day. However, he confirmed that PU had declared fake degrees of seven contesters and two of them had withdrawn election. On a query, he said the fate of the rest five candidates whose degrees were declared fake will be decided by the LHC CJ as the matter was sub judice.