Dissenting note: Lawyers in 5 divisions to boycott LHC bar election

They say lack of LHCBA for division benches was ‘disappointing’.

LAHORE:

Lawyers in five divisions of the province have decided to boycott the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) elections scheduled on February 22, The Express Tribune has learnt.

They are protesting the lack of Lahore lawyers’s support for demand for benches of the Lahore High Court in their areas.

Lawyers of Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sahiwal, Sargodha and Dera Ghazi Khan have decided against voting in the upcoming elections of the LHCBA.

An inter-division committee of the lawyers association decided last week they would take action against any lawyers they participated in the elections.

Tanveerur Rehman Randhawa, president of the Faisalabad Bar Association and the head of the inter-division committee (IDC), told The Express Tribune that the LHCBA representatives had “cheated” by not supporting the establishment of LHC benches in five divisions. He said a lawyer from Bhakkar had to spend three days to attend a single hearing at the Lahore High Court under the current arrangement.

He said it often became too expensive for lawyers from these divisions to travel to Lahore and stay for court proceedings.

He said the litigants also had to travel long distances to attend court proceedings.

He said if LHC benches, like those in Multan, Rawalpindi, and Bahawalpur, had been setup in Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sahiwal, Sargodha and DG Khan, many problems faced by litigants and lawyers would have been resolved. He said the burden on the principle seat of the LHC would also be reduced.

He said the lack LHCBA support in this regard had been disappointing.

The LHCBA general house meeting, under its president Abid Saqi, had also passed a resolution against the proposal to setup new LHC benches.

Randhawa said instead of helping them, the LHCBA had sabotaged their campaign by passing the resolution.

He said in a meeting of the IDC, lawyers had decided not to participate in the elections and urged the bar association to take disciplinary action against their members if they cast their vote.

Shafqat Mahmood Chohan, a presidential candidate for the LHCBA, said some lawyers were trying to sabotage the elections.

He said most lawyers would still participate in the elections. He said he had arranged for pick-and-drop facilities for lawyers of all parts of the province.

He said if elected, he would not oppose establishment of the new benches.

He also said, however, that he would also not join the campaign. The number of voting members of the LHCBA has dropped by 1,628 over last year even after registration of 1,138 new voters.

Last year, there were 18,895 voting members of the LHCBA. This year, the number is 17,267. As many as 6,280 lawyers have not paid their vote renewal dues.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 21^st, 2014.