Anwar Kamal new LHCBA president

* Professional Group overpowers Khosa Group

Staff Report

LAHORE: Anwar Kamal, the Professional Group’s candidate for the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) president, has been elected as the president of the bar for 2008-09 with an overwhelming majority.

Kamal bagged 3,507 votes while his rivals, Pervez Inayat Malik of the Khosa Group secured 1,088 votes and Mazhar Iqbal Gill got 20 votes.

Rana Asadullah was elected secretary with 1,866 votes while his rivals Zahid Hussain Malik got 946 votes, Sahir Mehmood Bhatti 714, Mian Irfan Akram 532, and Wasim Mumtaz Malik secured 519 votes. Asadullah is the brother of Punjab Assembly member-elect Rana Mashhood. Mian Aslam was elected vice president, and Syeda Feroza Rubab was elected the finance secretary of the LHCBA.

Celebrations among the supporters of the winners began immediately with the announcement of these results. They hugged each other, cheered and burst into slogans against President Pervez Musharraf and the PCO judges. They also distributed sweets and danced to drumbeats. Addressing the voters, Kamal reiterated his pledge to take the lawyers’ movement for the restoration of judges “to its logical end”. He said, “We will bring the deposed judges back at any cost. They are constitutional judges.” He said there was a simple way to restore judges. If the Supreme Court decision of November 3 were implemented, everything would revert to how it was on November 2. Kamal added that the lawyers did not accept Musharraf as president of the country. He said once the independent judiciary was reinstated, it would decide Musharraf’s fate and the nation would be able to enjoy the fruit of true democracy.

The polling at the LHCBA started at 8am and ended at 5pm with an hour-long interval for lunch.

After the announcement of the results, the newly elected members visited Advocate Hamid Khan, leader of the Professional Group.

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