SCBA elections marred by controversy

The returning officer has issued notices to the respondents for November 10

LAHORE: The Supreme Court Bar Association elections this year have been marred by controversy over the outcome for the secretary and the vice president seats.

In the election held on September 29, both seats were won by candidates fielded by Hamid Khan-led Professional Group. Asad Manzoor Butt had won the secretary’s seat and Tabinda Islam the vice president’s seat.

Their rivals, Aftab Ahmad Bajwa and Bakhtiar Ali Sial of Asma Jahangir’s Independent Group had challenged the results in separate petitions submitted with the returning officer, Advocate Chaudhry Afrasiab Khan. The petitioners had sought recounting of votes.

In his petition against Butt’s election to the secretary’s office, Bajwa, who lost by a margin of six votes, had submitted that several votes cast in his favour were unfairly rejected. He had sought recounting of votes and directions for Butt to not take charge of the office of secretary till a decision was reached in the matter.

At a hearing last week, RO Afrasiab Khan had linked the finality of notifications declaring Butt and Islam as winners to the outcome of the proceedings in the petitions and issued notices to them for November 10.

A major controversy over the results had earlier occurred in 2006 elections. The outgoing SCBA president, Justice (r) Malik Muhammad Qayyum, had issued a notification voiding Munir A Malik’s election to the office of the president. Malik was declared as the winning candidate following the vote count in a notification issued by then SCBA secretary Ali Akbar Qureshi (responsible for conducting the election). The notification issued by Qayyum declared Raja Haq Nawaz, his rival who lost according to Qureshi’s notification, as the winning candidate.

The matter had been referred to Justice Saqib Nisar (then an LHC judge). He had, however, excused himself and sent the dispute for resolution to the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC). The PBC had cancelled Qayyum’s notification and upheld the vote count overseen by then SCBA secretary Qureshi, declaring Malik the winning candidate.

The norm for the bar elections is that everyone accepts the results and outgoing office bearers gracefully hand over charge to the newly elected body on the election night.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, RO Afrasiab Khan said disagreement over SCBA election results was rare.

He said once elections had taken place peacefully there was no reason to question the results. However, he said, recounting of votes would be ordered if the petitioners succeeded in arguing for their case.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2015.