Polling for Pakistan Bar Council today
Campaigning for the seats has been frenetic, and several of the voters, who are elected members of the provincial bar councils, have switched off their mobile phones to avoid calls from candidates desperately seeking votes.
Pundits say that Hamid Khan, Muhammad Ahsan Bhoon, Ramazan Chaudhry, Azam Nazir Tarar and Syed Qalb-e-Hassan are certain to win seats as they have the support of at least six voters each, the minimum number required to guarantee a seat.
Maqsood Buttar, Mian Abbas, Mian Israr, Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Rana Mashhood and Khurram Latif Khosa are believed likely to win seats as well. That would leave one seat, to be fought over by Shahram Sarwar, Burhan Muazzam Malik, Mian Quddoos and Nasrullah Warraich.
Polling will be held in the office of the Punjab Advocate General, who also serves as presiding officer for the election in Lahore. Voting will be open from 9am to 3pm.
The unofficial result will likely be announced on Wednesday as well, but the official notification will not be issued till December 31.
The 22 seats on the council are divided among the provinces, with Punjab getting 11 seats, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa four, Sindh six, and Balochistan one seat. Candidates must be members of the Supreme Court Bar Association to qualify.
The attorney general of Pakistan will serve as the election commissioner and officials of the Senate of Pakistan 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 their 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
Some candidates have reportedly bought cars and other lavish gifts for voters to get their support.
Lawyers say the PBC elections were already important, but had become even more so since a PBC representative was appointed to the Judicial Commission, which appoints judges to the superior judiciary.
No postponement
Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry of the Lahore High Court dismissed a petition on Tuesday challenging the electoral roll and asking that the election be delayed.
Chaudhry Sultan Ahmad Arshad, a Supreme Court advocate, filed the petition. He said that an SC advocate could stand for election to the PBC, but could not vote. Under the Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Act of 1976, only members of provincial bar councils can vote in the election.
He said denying the SC advocates the vote was illegal and unjustifiable. He said if SC advocates could contest the election, they should also be allowed to vote for members of the top regulatory body of the legal fraternity in the country.
The petitioner asked the court to abolish the restriction on voting by holding it to be discriminatory and illegal and to stay the election till the final decision on the petition.
The chief justice dismissed the petition, observing that the PBC was an independent body and the court had no jurisdiction to interfere in its affairs.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 22nd, 2010.
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