LHCBA election: Professionals, Ahsan Bhoon Group face off

Peoples’ Party lawyers divided amongst the two groups for their support.

LAHORE: Canvassing for the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) election scheduled for February 28 is in full swing with polling a mere three days away. Contestants themselves are soliciting votes at the Lahore High Court entrance and at various lawyers’ chambers.

Shahid Maqbool Sheikh and Mian Asghar Ali are Professional Group’s candidates for the offices of president and secretary. Ahsan Bhoon Group, the other major faction, is backing Masood Chisti, former law secretary and Punjab Bar Council member, and Muhammad Ahmed Qayyum, son of Justice (retd) Malik Qayyum, for the two slots.

Lawyers affiliated with the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) are divided amongst Professional and Ahsan Bhoon Groups’ candidates for their support. A group led by Senator Babar Awan is backing Chisti (Ahsan Bhoon) for the office of president and Asghar Ali (Professional Group) for the office of secretary. Another group led by Senator Kazim Khan is putting its support behind Sheikh (Professional Group) for the office of the president and Qayyum (Ahsan Bhoon Group) for the office of the secretary.

All lawyers associated with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) are supporting him Qayyum, who is also a nephew of PML-N MNA Malik Pervaiz, for the secretary’s seat.

The Professional Group is headed by Advocate Hamid Khan. Other prominent members of the group include the incumbent LHCBA president, Shafqat Chohan, former presidents Advocate Mian Israr and Advocate Ahmed Awais. Ahsan Bhoon Group includes Asma Jahangir, Azam Nazir Tarar, Chaudhry Naeem and Abid Saqi. Naseer Bhutta and Khawaja Mahmood Ahmed of the PML-N group are also amongst its members.

Sophia Masood and Muhammad Irfan Arif Sheikh are facing off for the office of the vice president. There are four contestants for the finance secretary’s slot. These are Azeem Akram, Nabeela Manzoor Jafri, Amina Ajmal and Syed Akhtar Hussain Sherazi.

Currently, the LHCBA has 24,730 members. LHCBA president Shafqat Chohan had earlier announced that biometric technology would be used this year to verify voters’ details. Of the 19,672 voting members so far the data of 11,100 has been uploaded in the voters’ database. Chohan told The Express Tribune that data of the remaining voters would be added to the system on the polling day.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th, 2015.