LAHORE:
Candidates running for various posts in the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) elections, scheduled for October 31, say they will continue their election campaign during the Eid break.
Though Friday had been declared a public holiday, offices of all candidates remained opened. They will remain open during Eid as well.
SCBA presidential candidates addressed the voters on Friday, while some of the candidates were observed distributing Eid cakes among their voters.
One of the three presidential candidates, Ahmed Awais, from the Professional Group of Lawyers (PGL) that is led by Advocate Hamid Khan, announced his support for the PCO judges. The PGL had earlier run a campaign to oust the PCO judges.
Awais has assured his supporters that he will take up the case for the ousted judges and make a case for their restoration.
Talking to The Express Tribune, Awais said that judges of the superior courts who had taken oath after the restoration of the Constitution had been ousted illegally. He said their case should be reconsidered in the light of Al Jehad Trust case.
“Arguments for the restoration of ousted judges from Lahore are in progress. I am hopeful that they will cast their vote en bloc for me,” he said.
Commenting on the distribution of cakes by some candidates, Awais said he would rather not get votes in exchange of cakes or other gifts.
Awais’s contender, Mian Israrul Haq said he has promised 3,000 residential plots for the voters.
“If I am elected as the SCBA president, I will make sure that plots are given to the bar members,” he told The Tribune. Haq said he had completed his campaign across the country. During Eid, he said, he will only focus on Lahore.
A total of 60 candidates are contesting for 22 seats in the elections this year. According to the final list issued by the presiding officer of the elections, Advocate Awais, Advocate Zafarullah Khan and Advocate Haq are contesting for the office of the president.
Nine candidates are contesting for four seats of vice president. They are Muhammad Riaz Khan Sawati and Abdullah Kakar from Balochistan, Jamal Khatak and Muhammad Arif Khan from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Muhammad Tahir Chaudhry and Rana Naeem Sarwar from the Punjab and Abbas Ali, Ainuddin Khan and Sayed Jamil Ahmed from Sindh.
Two candidates, Javed Iqbal Raja and Muhammad Sohail Dar, are contesting for the office of the secretary.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 27th, 2012.
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