The Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) on Monday lifted a ban earlier imposed on serving meals to voters by candidates on the day of annual bar elections scheduled to be held on February 25. A resolution in this regard was tabled before the general house meeting of the LHCBA on Monday pleading for the ban to be lifted. Duly complying with the plea, the resolution was passed unanimously by the house chaired by the Bar President Asghar Ali Gill.
The resolution was tabled by Rana Ahmed Saeed, an advocate in the house, stating that voters would not come to cast votes on the election-day if the meal was not served to them according to the new code of conduct for LHCBA polls 2012-13. Secretary LHCBA Arshad Malik presented it before the house for debate and it was passed unanimously.
Advocate Saeed, on the contrary, believed that a ban on the meal would cost the candidates contesting the elections because the elections would also not be fair with a potential low turnout. He said that the voters belonging to far flung areas of Punjab come to Lahore on elections to participate in the ‘annual dinner’ and they would be disappointed if they remained hungry. He also said that the meals were part of the bar culture which should not be purged owing to the so called code of conducts.
Posing a question to the bar, Saeed asked “Where would the thousands of voters, especially those from outer cities, eat their lunch on the Election Day?” The resolution also said that a majority of the voters and the candidates had serious objections to the ban and demanded that the ban be lifted.