LAHORE: The annual elections for district and tehsil bar associations were held across the province on Saturday.

Malik Sarood of the Independent Group, famously known as the late Asma Jahangir group, was elected president of the Lahore Bar Association in a one-on-one contest, securing 2,544 votes against 2,503 of Rao Sami of the Hamid Khan-led Professional Group.

After the announcement of the results, lawyers celebrated victories of their candidates on different seats and resorted to aerial firing besides dancing to drumbeats.

Rana Shahid Hussain and M.H. Shaheen were elected vice presidents with 2,410 and 2,201 votes, respectively. Rana Kausar Sulehri and Irfan A. Khichi were elected on one each seat of vice president from Model Town courts and Cantonment courts, respectively.

District, tehsil bar association elections held province-wide

On the two posts of secretary, Ahmad Saad and Mudassir Butt were elected with 2,894 and 2,760 votes, respectively. Mian Farhat Saleem bagged 2,546 votes and won as the joint secretary, while Rana Muhammad Akmal was elected finance secretary after obtaining 1,840 votes.

As many as 10,714 members of the bar association exercised their right to vote in the polling conducted through the biometric system.

CHINIOT: Malik Fateh Sher Khokhar was elected president of the Chiniot District Bar Association (DBA) defeating Syed Ali Raza, Chaudhry Khalid Mehmood was declared the vice president defeating Malik Ashraf Gloter, while Tahir Baloch was already announced as the secretary unopposed.

In the Bhowana Tehsil Bar Association (TBA) elections, Mehr Ashfaq Jappa was declared the president against Muhammad Khan Khanuana, while Malik Habibullah won the secretary’s slot defeating Malik Wajid Ali.

Syed Riaz Hussain Shah was elected vice president defeating Habibullah Chadhar.

TOBA TEK SINGH: Counting of votes for the district and tehsil bar elections was under way till the filing of this report. However, Ejaz Akhtar Kahuja was announced as the president and Chaudhry Afzal Basra the general secretary of Gojra TBA.

Jamil Waince was declared the president of Pirmahal TBA and Suhaib Munir general secretary. For Kamalia TBA, the elected officials were Rai Adil Kamran (president) and Malik Mashkoor Khokhar (general secretary).

MUZAFFARGARH: Sardar Abdul Qayyum Dasti of the Jam Younis group won the slot of the DBA president, securing 646 votes, while Muhammad Shafique Malana was declared the general secretary with 509 votes.

For the annual exercise, 2,200 lawyers had been registered as voters. The panel of Jam Younis, a member of the Punjab Bar Council, had contested the elections of president and general secretary and won both. Abdul Kareem Lashari was the runner-up in the race for the president’s seat, while Mazhar Dasti secured second highest votes in the election for general secretary.

VEHARI: PML-N Lawyers Wing President Nadeem Akram was elected as the president of Vehari bar association and Musawir Bloch of the same group declared the general secretary.

SHEIKHUPURA: According to official results, Azmat Sidhu clinched the slot of the DBA president securing 653 votes, while his opponent, Khalid Rashid, bagged 576 votes.

For the slot of general secretary, Mian Ali Bashir bagged 908 votes and defeated Adnan Safdar Thakar, who secured 575 votes. Mathira was elected the vice president with 976 votes.

The elections for Ferozewala bar were, however, postponed due to some technical reasons.

In the Nankana Bar Association elections, the panel of Baba Amin Bhatti group bagged all the seats with Rai Qasim Mushtaq winning the president’s slot, Asad Sabir Gujjar the general secretary’s and Rana Dildar the vice president’s.

SARGODHA: According to the 1,300 votes counted out of the total 1,880 polled till the filing of this report, Adeel Sulehria was leading against his opponent, Hammad Haroon Cheema, for the president’s slot, while Faisal Awan was ahead of his sole opponent, Faiz Hargan, in the race for the general secretary.

Meanwhile, aerial firing based on rumours had started even while the results were still being counted. Policemen were witnessing the entire episode as silent spectators. A senior lawyer, Muhammad Aslam, expressed concern and appealed to the lawyers to avoid such a manner of celebration that could result in clashes if not contained.Out of the total 2,740 voters registered, 1,880 members exercised their right to vote.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2021