LAHORE – Abid Saqi of the Independent Group on Saturday has been elected as the President, Ch Gulam Sarwar Nihang as Vice President while Baleeghuz Zaman as Secretary General of Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA).
Saqi was enjoying support of members Pakistan Bar Council including Ahsan Bhoon, Azam Nazir Tarar and Mian Israrul Haq. Former president of Supreme Court Bar Association Asma Jahangir was also backing him.
The election of the LHCBA was held in the premises of Lahore High Court wherein members of the bar used their right to vote for the selection of their favourite candidates.
According to the results announced by the Election Commission, Abid Saqi advocate, who had the support of PML-N and Asma Jahangir group, succeeded to win the confidence of 3357 members of the bar while their opponents an independent candidate Shafqat Mehmood Chohan and Professional group supported Syed Muhammad Shah secured 2783 and 2194 votes respectively.
Chaudhry Ghulam Sarwar Nihang by scoring 4988 votes was selected as Vice President. However, his opponent Qayyum Tahir bagged 3269 votes.
Baleeghuz Zaman proved another successive candidate scoring 3472 members of the bar expressed their confidence for selecting him Secretary General of the LHCBA.
His opponent candidate Mian Khadam Hussain Mandey secured only 2804 votes of the office. The third candidate for this slot Latif Sarra grabbed 2050 votes.
For the seat of Finance Secretary Usman Sher Gondal was elected as he received 5542 votes. Gondal got maximum number of votes individually.
After the results of the election were announced, the supporters of the successful candidates distributed sweets among the lawyers and danced to their victory.
Addressing to his supporters, Abid Saqi thanked them and vowed to make all out efforts for the welfare of lawyers community and betterment of the Bar.
Traditional festivity was lacking in this year polls mainly due to rainy weather and boycott by Faisalabd and Sahiwal lawyers on LHC benches in their respective divisions.
Turn out of voters also remained low as only 8391 lawyers cast their votes out of total 18895 eligible votes.
PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif congratulated the LHC Bar candidates who were elected in the election. In his message Sharif said that the office bearers would work for rule of law in the country.