LAHORE – More than 10,000 members of the Lahore Bar Association (LBA) will cast votes on Saturday to elect their 117th representative cabinet for 2011-12. Polling arrangements have been completed at the Zila Katchery where polling will be held from 9am to 5pm with one hour prayer break from 1pm to 2pm. Candidates have been campaigning for several months for coveted slots while the official campaigning time ends on Thursday night. According to details, LBA annual elections are going to be held on Saturday in which 10,715 members will use their right of vote to elect their representatives for the next year.
According to the final list, 28 candidates are contesting for nine seats while Sheikh Tariq Hussain has been elected unopposed as auditor. Abdul Latif Hanjra, MR Awan, Shahzad Hassan Sheikh and Ziauddin Ansari are candidates for LBA president. Abdul Rehman Gondal, Ali Nawaz Butt, Arif Mahmood Chaudhry, Azfar Kamal Kharal, Chaudhry Liaqat Ali Pannu, Fida Hussain Mata and Malik Sultan Ahmad are candidates for two seats of vice president. Mian Hafeez and Riaz Bhatti are contesting for vice president (Model Town Seat).
Farhad Ali Shah, Jawad Akbar Gill, Rana Intizar Hussain and Shahid Maqsood Bhulla will contest for two seats of secretary. Faisal Sagheer Rana, Shahid Nawab, Shahid Mahmood, Zulfiqar Ali Bhatti, Mubeen Akhtar and Atif Raza Iqbal Sheikh will fight for the joint secretary slot.
For the seat of finance secretary, Azeem A Sheikh, Azmat Nazeer Hashmi and Hafiz Mushtaq Ahmad Naeemi are in the run while Hafeez Rafique and Sheikh Amir will contest for seat of library secretary. Apart from all individual candidates, more than 70 small and big groups of lawyers formed on sectarian, territorial and political affiliation will play an important role in success of their backed candidates.
Some groups which are very active in bar politics include the People’s Lawyers Forum (PLF), Al Adil Lawyers Forum, Decent Lawyers Forum, Elevator Lawyers Forum, Falcon Lawyers Forum, Fane Road Welfare Society, Fikr-e-Quaid Lawyers Forum, Fiqr-e-Jinnah Lawyers Forum, Friends Lawyers Forum, Hello Group of Lawyers, Independent Lawyers Forum, Intelligent lawyers Forum, Ittefaq Lawyers Forums, Jinnah Lawyers Forum, Kasur Lawyers Forum, Lawyers Union, Lawyers Voice, Legal Links Lawyers Forum, Like-Minded Lawyers, Lion’s Lawyers Forum, Maverick Lawyers Forum, Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) Lawyers Forum, National Lawyers Forum, Northern Lawyers Forum, Old Pioneer’s Lawyer forum, Patriot Lawyers Group, Progressive Lawyers Forum, Rajput Jurists Club, Rajput Lawyers Welfare Society, Realistic Lawyers Forum, Revolution Lawyers Forum, Raiwind Lawyers Forum, Rights Lawyers Forum, Saadat Lawyers Forum, Sanda Lawyers Forum, Shahdara Jurist Forum, Superior Lawyers Forum, Syed Lawyers Forum, Union of Lawyers, Vigilant Lawyers Forum, Wisdom Lawyers Forum, Young Lawyers Forum and the Zarb-e-Kaleem.
