Pakistan Bar Council: Candidates canvassing for votes as polls near

LAHORE: Canvassing for elections to the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), the statutory body for the country’s lawyers, is underway ahead of the election on December 22.

Thirty-two candidates including seven current members are vying for the 22 seats up for election. The candidates are visiting voters door-to-door to seek their support, sometimes two or three times a day.

Each candidate requires at least one proposer to stand for elections. Five candidates   Muhammad Ahsan Bhoon, Asrarul Haq Mian, Hamid Khan, Mian Abbas Ahmed and Azam Nazeer Tarar – have four proposers each, an indicator that they are in a strong position for the polls.

Bar pundits say the upcoming PBC elections will be of prime importance for the elections of high court bar associations and district bar associations.

Members of provincial bar councils cast votes in the PBC election. The 22 PBC seats are divided among the provinces: Punjab gets 11 seats, Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa 4, Sindh 6 and Balochistan 1 seat. A candidate must be a member of the Supreme Court Bar Association to be eligible for election.

Several candidates are PBC members who have previously made multiple attempts to get elected. Ashraf Wahla is standing for election for the fifth time, Hamid Khan for the fourth time and Asrarul Haq Mian for the second time. Senior bar members have called for a limit on the number of times members can run for elections.

The other contestants include Anwar Akhtar, Abdul Quddus Mian, Chaudhry Nasrullah Warraich, Muhammad Maqsood Buttar, Mian Muhammad Shafiq, Chaudhry Khalid Farooq, Muhammad Arif Alvi, Sardar Latif Khosa, Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry, Muhammad Ramzan Chaudhry, Rana Zia Abdul Rehman, Farrukh Mahmood, Sardar Manzoor Ahmad Khan, Syed Kalbe Hassan, Muhammad Kalim Ahmad Khurshid, Syed Asghar Hussain Sabzwari, Abdul Aziz Khan Niazi, Burhan Moazzam Malik, Tanveerur Rehman Randhawa, Malik Khalid Mahmood, Mahmood Ashraf Khan, Muhammad Sher Cheema, Barrister Nasir Sabir Chaudhry, Chaudhry Amin Javed, Muhammad Maqsood Ahmad, and Rana Mashhood Ahmad, the deputy speaker of the Punjab Assembly.

The nomination papers of the candidates will be scrutinised on December 11 and the list of nominees finalised and displayed on December 12. Candidates can withdraw their nomination papers until December 14. The candidates’ list after withdrawals will be displayed on December 15. Voting will be held on December 22, while the results will be officially notified on December 31. The attorney general of Pakistan serves as the election commissioner for the polls while the four advocate generals serve as presiding officers. Polling will be held at the four provincial bar council buildings.

Senate of Pakistan officials will conduct the election and the official count.

The count is calculated according to a formula under which voters get to choose a candidate for each seat in his or her province, and rank them in descending order. So a Punjab voter would vote for 11 candidates, with the candidate he ranks number one getting 100 points, followed by fewer points for the second-placed candidate, and so on.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2010.