LHCBA elections: Buttar nomination looks likely

Professional Group lawyers criticise leadership for delay in nomination.

LAHORE:

Lawyers aspiring to contest the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) elections as the presidential candidate of the Professional Group of Lawyers (PGL) have slammed the group’s leadership for failing to nominate a candidate with the polls due at the end of this month.

Advocates Raja Javed Iqbal, Shafqat Mahmood Chohan and Syed Muhammad Shah, who had been vying for the nomination for the last couple of months, said they no longer believed that they were being seriously considered.

A source close to Hamid Khan, the head of the PGL, said that the group would likely back Aslam Buttar, who previously had the support of the rival Asma Jahangir Group (AJG) and has been campaigning aggressively for the elections.

He said that in previous years, candidates had started their election campaigns in October. “It’s very late now. The election is scheduled for the last Saturday of February,” he said.

Raja said that he was “very upset” because of the uncertainty and the leadership of the group had embarrassed the aspiring candidates. He said he was thinking of giving up his bid to get the group’s nomination. “The PGL has lost the election by delaying this decision,” he said.

Chohan said he still had hope of winning the nomination, but he was angry about the delay. “I had a heated exchanged of words with PGL bigwigs two days ago over this,” he said. “I told them the delay was very damaging.”

Shah, who had said a month ago that he was very confident he would win the nomination, told The Express Tribune that he did not expect to be the nominee.

“There are dangerous rumours going around in the legal fraternity that the leadership wants Aslam Buttar, who was with our opponents,” he said.

Advocate Ahmed Awais, a PGL leader, said that a final decision on the nomination would be made at a meeting on Wednesday (December 7). He conceded that the group had taken too long to select a candidate. Asked who would be the likely candidate, Awais said various options were under consideration.

Buttar told The Express Tribune that he and Hamid Khan were old friends and former classmates. “Apparently he wants to back me but his allies are creating hurdles,” he said.

Buttar said that he had the support of Manzoor Qadir, Mian Abdul Quddoos and Burhan Moazzam Malik of the PGL, and he would stand for election regardless of whose backing he had. He said the Asma Jahangir Group had “betrayed” him. “They wasted two months of my time by giving me hope of their patronage but later announced Shahram Sarwar as their candidate,” he said.

He said his campaign was in full swing and he spent three days a week campaigning in districts outside Lahore. “I’ve been to Chunian, Okara, Pattoki, Sargodha, Bhalwal, Khushab, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Pakpattan, Mian Channu, Sialkot, Gujrat and Gujranwala.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2011.