LAHORE
Bank Road was simultaneously the scene of great joy and devastated grief in the provincial metropolis on Wednesday as destiny placed the highly coveted crown of the Supreme Court Bar Association president on Asma Jahangir’s head, while Ahmed Awais’ supporters were left baffled with the unexpected defeat.
The polling results dumbfounded the pro-judiciary faction of lawyers supporting Awais and sent a wave of jubilation through Asma’s supporters.
The ‘silent battlefield’ for the sensitive SCBA polls was set at Bank Road between GPO Chowk and Old Anarkali Chowk in front of the supreme court’s Lahore Registry where all three presidential candidates – Asma Jahangir, Ahmed Awais and Ikram Chaudhry – cast their votes and made ‘last-minute appeals’ to SCBA’s voters.
Scores of SCBA voters, senior lawyers and supporters showed up to make a difference with their ‘vote and support’ in the polls that were said to be a close contest between the pro-judiciary and the pro-government groups. And so it was, as Asma won the polls by a very slender lead.
A total of 55 candidates were in the run, competing for 21 SCBA seats for the whole country including the politicised slot of president. There were a total 2,026 SCBA voters across the country and 1,018 of them were from Lahore.
Therefore Lahore was the centre of the polling as all candidates came face to face in the provincial metropolis, forgetting their duties and responsibilities in other provinces, putting it on their ‘supporters’.
Hamid Khan, head of the Professional Group of lawyers, stood at the polling spot in support of his candidate Ahmed Awais the entire day, while Ali Ahmed Kurd made his presence felt strongly in Asma’s camp.
At the polling site, each group hosted lunches and tea parties for its voters at their respective camps per capacity, with Asma serving the best meals to the lawyers and SCBA voters.
