There was a great hustle and bustle during the polling for the election of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) in Multan here on Wednesday. Member of SCBA belonging to Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan Layyah, Vehari, Khanewal, Lodhran, Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur cast their votes at Multan polling station while lawyers belonging to Rahimyarkhan, Bahawalpur and Banahawalnagar exercised their right of vote at Bahawalpur station.
131 out of total 146 votes were cast today while 90 percent of total of 2,592 members of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) exercised their right to choose new officer-bearers for the coming year's body on Wednesday (today). Polling for the annual election was held at nine stations - Karachi, Hyderabad, Quetta, Peshawar, Abbottabad, Lahore, Multan, Bahawalpur and Islamabad in peaceful manners. Experts on bar politics expect a tough contest today between Haq and Awais as both lawyers enjoy good reputation and support among the jurists. Punjab remained a hub of the election activities as 70 percent members of the SCBA are enrolled in Punjab. The SCBA president's slot went to Punjab this year in view of rotation policy for the bar's top slot election. Ahmad Awais advocate and Mian Israrul Haq are candidates for president slot of the SCBA. Zafar Ullah Khan, another candidate for presidential slots, is an independent candidate.
Nine candidates are vying for four slots of the SCBA vice president from all provinces. They are Muhammad Riaz Khan Sawati and Abdullah Kakar from Balochistan, Jamal Khattak and Muhammad Arif Khan from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Muhammad Tahir Chaudhry and Rana Naeem Sarwar from Punjab while Abbas Ali, Ain-ud-Din Khan and Syed Jamil Ahmed from Sindh. Jamal Khattak has been elected unopposed. Javed Iqbal Raja and Muhammad Sohail Dar are contesting for one seat of secretary.
Abdul Majeed Khan, Fayaz Ahmed Rana and Muhammad Saleheen Mughal are in the run for one seat of additional secretary. Abdul Rashid Qari and Chaudhry Muhammad Aslam Ghumman are contesting for one seat of finance secretary. Awais is a presidential candidate of Hamid Khan-led Professional Group of lawyers while Haq is being supported by the Democratic Independent Group.