Lahore, 26 February 2023 (GNP): The Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) created history on Saturday by electing a female secretary for the very first time since its formation in 1893.
Sabahat Rizvi received 4,310 votes in the LHCBA secretary election for the year 2023-24, defeating two male opponents. She was running for the first time. She belongs to the Independent group, also known as the Asma Jahangir group, although the mass of lawyers backed her regardless of these affiliations.
The bar elected Rabbiya Bajwa as vice president, breaking another record for concurrently electing two women to serve as its representatives in the cabinet.
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Bajwa, a senior leader of the Hamid Khan-led Professional group, received 3,590 votes during the voting process, outnumbering her five male opponents. She was initially chosen in 2006 to serve as the bar’s finance secretary.
When Chaudhry Ishtiaq A Khan of the Professional group ousted Lehrasib Khan Gondal of the Independent group by a sizable majority, the Professional group also won the presidency with overwhelming success.
Gondal received 3,372 votes, while Khan received 7,293 votes.
The Professional faction has now won three straight bar association elections.
In previous years, the group won the top spots at the Supreme Court Bar Association in October of the previous year and the Lahore Bar Association in January this past year.
The bar was unanimously opposed to the Supreme Court appointing junior judges from the high courts. Some, however, believe that poor candidate selection caused the defeats because the outgoing LHCBA president is a member of the Asma faction.
After receiving 7,109 votes, Shahrukh Shahbaz Warraich was chosen as the LHCBA’s finance secretary. The votes cast for his opponents Amir Sohail Bosal and Adil Naeem Sheikh were 2,442 and 1,073, respectively.
Iftikhar Ali Bhatti, Chaudhry Ahmad Khan Gondal, Abdul Rauf Bhatti, Mian Sardar Ali Gehlan, and Waris Ali Saroya were further contenders for the vice president position.
Mian Muhammad Irfan and Qadir Bakhsh Chahal competed for the position of secretary.
10,776 out of 26,043 bar members who were eligible to vote in the biometric did so. Chaudhry Imran Masood, the chair of the electoral board, commended the legal community for holding a free and open election.
