District bar: Qureshi favourite to win top slot

Observers believe young lawyers’ vote will carry the day.

The Asma Jahangir-led Friends Group seems likely to win the presidential slot in the Lahore Bar Elections to be held today at the Sessions Court.

Nauman Qureshi is the Friends Group’s candidate for president. The Professional Group (led by Hamid Khan Group) has fielded Chaudhary Ishtiaq for that position.

The Arain and the Rajput clans as well as the Peoples Lawyer Forum (PLF) are backing Qureshi who lost the election in 2012.

Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Mian Asrarul Haq, Pakistan Bar Counsel Executive Committee Chairman Burhan Muazam Malik, Pakistan Bar Council members Ahsan Bhoon, Shahram Serwar, former LBA presidents Shehzad Hassan Shaikh, Sajid Bashir and the Jutt Group are also backing Qureshi.

Former Lahore High Court Bar Association president Mian Qaddoos, Azmatullah Chaudhry and others are supporting Chaudhry Ishtiaq.

There are five candidates for vice president slots. The pundits believe Tauqeer Sadiq and Mian Shehzad Hassan have edge over others. Shahid Mehmood Bhatti is thought to be a strong candidate for the Model Town seat. Kamran Bashir Mughal and Nadeem Chaudhary are said to be a shoe-in for the posts of secretary and additional secretary.

Independent observers believe that young lawyers have the sway in the results. The success of Sajid Bashir and Shahzad Hassan Sheikh in the past supports this view.

Professional Group’s members too are pulling out all stops for their presidential candidate.

The Election Board chairman Chaudhry Imran Masood has said that there will be seven booths, one for women and six for men, where 12,100 lawyers will casts their votes. He said those whose father’s name was not clear from the voters list would not be allowed to vote without producing their original NICs and the bar association licences.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2013.