Pakistan Bar Council: Elections to be held across Pakistan

Provincial councils will elect new members for a five-year term.

ISLAMABAD: Election for the appointment of new members in the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) will be held on Wednesday (today). Attorney General of Pakistan Maulvi Anwarul Haq, who is also the returning officer for the election, has appointed advocate-generals of the four provinces as presiding officers while polling stations have been constituted at the high court buildings in Quetta, Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi.

The voters, members of the provincial bar councils, will elect 22 members for a five-year term, against seats reserved for their respective provinces. Polling will start at 9 am and will continue till 3 pm.

Five contestants are running for one seat from Balochistan, eight contestants for four seats from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 30 contestants from Punjab are running for 11 seats, while 13 contestants from Sindh are running for six seats.

The PBC was established by parliament in 1973 under the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act, 1976. It is the highest elected body of lawyers in Pakistan with the attorney general as its ex-officio chairman.

The members of the PBC are elected on the basis of a single transferable vote by the members of the provincial bar councils. The council also elects its vice-chairman every year from amongst its elected members.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2010.