Asma Jahangir group had won the last two elections.
LAHORE: Hamid Khan group, which had no representation in the Lahore High Court Bar Association during the last two years, prevailed in the association’s elections held on Saturday.
The group, which had led the lawyers’ movement, has also been out of the Supreme Court Bar Association for the last four years.
Asma Jahangir’s group still leads the Pakistan Bar Council and the Punjab Bar Council.
However, a candidate of the Hamid Khan group won the recent presidential election of the Lahore Bar Association.
On Saturday, lawyers elected Shafqat Mahmood Chohan, also a candidate of the Hamid Khan group, as president of the LHCBA.
Chohan had twice ran for the office, without success, as an independent candidate after the Hamid Khan group had denied him a ticket.
Candidates of the group contesting for the slots of vice president and finance secretary were also successful.
Asma Jahangir group’s candidate took the slot of secretary.
Chohan bagged 4,964 votes. Chaudhary Muhammad Naeem, his rival candidate, took 1,575 votes.
Amir Jalil Siddiqi, a candidate of Hamid Khan group for the seat of vice president, won by securing 3,454 votes. His opponent, Muhammad Irfan Arif Sheikh got 3,030 votes.
Ahmad Chachar, candidate for secretary, won by securing 2,394 votes. Mian Asghar Ali, Mian Umar Farooq and Zahid Sikandar, also contesting for the same post secured 1,737, 1,533 and 1,081 votes respectively.
Mian Iqbal won for the seat of finance secretary by getting 2,590 votes while his opponent candidates Syed Akhtar Sherazi and Nabeela Manzoor Fajjri got 2,175 and 1,918 votes respectively.
Retired army chief’s benefits
Last week, in a response to a petition filed by General (r) Ziaud Din seeking retirement benefits, the federal government told the Lahore High Court that he had no proof of having served as chief of army staff. The government said his petition was not maintainable. Legal experts told The Express Tribune believe that the position taken by the government was “non-sense”.
Lady Willingdon Hospital demolition
The court once again extended the stay order against planned demolition of a portion of Lady Willingdon Hospital till February 24 and directed the counsel for both parties to make final arguments at the next hearing.
The court is hearing petitions against demolition of a part of the hospital to make way for a flyover at Azadi Chowk.
Garment city
Last week the court gave the government the go-ahead for the construction of a garment city at Sheikhupra Road, dismissing appeals challenging a single bench ruling on the construction.
Umar Akmal
The court suspended the show cause notice issued by the chief traffic officer to cricketer Umar Akmal for cancellation of his driving licence and summoned the official before the court on the next hearing.
The court issued the order on Akmal’s petition challenging the notice. Akmal’s counsel told the court that his client was booked after an argument with a traffic warden.
He said he was granted bail by the court and the matter was pending before the court.
He said the court had not decided on it so far but the CTO initiated procedure for cancellation of his driving license and issued show cause notice him.
He requested the court to declare the show cause notice illegal and unconstitutional and stop the CTO from cancelling his licence.
The court suspending the notice, directed the CTO to submit his reply on the next hearing.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 24th, 2014.
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