Geo Pakistan

 Polling to elect SCBA President begins

 ISLAMABAD: About 2240 members of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) would cast their votes in the annual SCBA election today (Saturday), Geo News reported. The polling has started at 9 am and would continue till 5 pm.

Rasheed A Rizvi and Yaseen Azad, both from Sindh, are in the run for the SCBA President. The People’s Lawyers Forum, the lawyer wing of the PPP and incumbent SCBA President Asma Jehangir are supporting Yasin Azad whereas Rizvi is a candidate of Hamid Khan-led Professional Group. Former SCBA presidents Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, also a PPP leader, and Qazi Muhammad Anwar have announced their support for Rizvi.

For the election, nine polling stations have been established across the country. The SCBA members would caste their votes in Lahore, Islamabad/Rawalpindi, Multan, Karachi, Bahawalpur, Peshawar, Abbottabad, Quetta and Sukhur.

In Islamabad/Rawalpindi, 330 voters have been registered, Karachi/Hyderabad 300, 200 in Peshawar/Abbottabad, 150 in Multan, 80 in Bahawalpur, 130 in Quetta and 1150 voters are registered in Lahore.

The significance of the SCBA election has increased after the lawyers’ movement. The lawyers have emerged as a strong pressure group in the country’s political arena. The government apparently wants to help elect a president who won’t give it tough time on the matter of non-implementation of the Supreme Court judgements, particularly in the NRO and NICL cases.