GUJRANWALA/ BAHAWALNAGAR/ HAFIZABAD – A number of district and tehsil bar associations in the Punjab province went to polls for the year 2012 on Sunday, with a good turnout.
According to reports received from different stations, the elections were held in a peaceful manner and free of rigging.
Gull Nawaz Goraya was elected president in Gujranwala, Chaudhry Noor Hasan in Bahawalngar, Nasir Hussain Sherazi in Hafizabad, Rana Jaffar Ali Khan in Khanewal, Malik Muhammad Hussain Saghla in Sahiwal, Muhammad Latif Khattak in Jhanian, Shehbaz Ahmad Cheema in Wazirabad, Chaudhry Muhammad Aslam in Mailsi, Ashraf Sulehria in Pasrur, Syed Hassan Raza in Mian Channu and Chaudhry Abdul Latif Ghani was re-elected as president of the Daska Bar Association. After being declared successful, all newly-elected office-bearers of the district bar associations (DBAs) vowed to sort out all problems of their fraternity without being involved in any sort of politics.
In Gujranwala, out of a total of 2001 voters, 1,667 lawyers went to polls while 16 votes were rejected by the polling staff. With 898 votes, Gull Nawaz Goraya defeated his rival Saeed Bhutta, who could only pocket 665 votes, while Zulfiquar Oathi could only score 70. Rana M Ashfaque clinched 1006 votes to secure the slot of senior vice-president. Khuram Shaukat won the seat of general secretary by bagging 753 votes, while Mian Naveed Ahmad made a clean sweep of the slot of joint secretary by claiming 819 votes. Shakeel Anjum got 858 votes for finance secretary, Rina Mumtaz Sarwar 1,073 for library secretary and Yasir Aziz 957 for the slot of auditor.
BAHAWALNAGAR: Chaudhry Noor Hasan reoccupied the office of DBA president with 206 votes after a close competition with Javed Akhtar Watto, who was polled 195 votes. Rana Khurram Javed got 225 votes to become secretary of the bar. Sardar Aslam Mosla got the seat of vice-president by securing 198 votes. Fazilat Niaz Mirza was elected library secretary unopposed.
HAFIZABAD: Nasir Hussain Sherazi was declared president of the Hafizabad DBA after pushing Muhammad Arshad Mehind behind by just four votes. Sherazi obtained 222 votes while Arshad Mehind 218.
However, all other slots were won by Mehind’s panel by big margin. Rai Usman acquired the slot of general secretary with 262 votes and Shakeel Shahzad vice-president with 243. Adeel Ahmad Salehria became joint secretary after getting 254 votes. Imran Khan stood victorious for the position of library secretary with 259 votes. Out of 503 eligible voters, 440 members cast their votes. The election was held in a transparent manner, but both the groups conducted celebratory gunfire before the announcement of results.
SAHIWAL: Malik Muhammad Hussain Saghla was elected president of the Sahiwal DBA with 443 votes against Tahir Shabbir Chaudhry’s 303 and Sheikh Muhammad Usman’s 196 votes. Khadim Hussain Gahlan with his 262 votes and Ghulam Abbas Kamboh with 221 suffered a crushing defeat from Rana Tahir Saeed, who was polled 457 votes for the position of vice-president. Muhammad Ashfaq Baloch got 500 votes to be general secretary. For the seat of joint secretary, Irfan Yousaf Chaudhry bagged 531 votes. It may be mentioned here that Muhammad Hussain Saghla has been elected president for the second time.
KHANEWAL: After clinching 309 votes, Rana Jaffar Ali Khan from the Lawyers’ Grand Alliance was elected as new president of the Khanewal DBA. From the Liberal Panel, Rao Khalid Mehmood Khan pocketed 254 votes to win the seat of general secretary. Of all 14 seats of DBA office-bearers, 11 were won by the Lawyers’ Grand Alliance and only three by the Liberals. Rana Qasim Nazir Khan won the seat of vice-president, Ch Muhammad Idrees of joint secretary, Ch Muhammad Kaleem Arshad of finance secretary, Muhammad Akram Sheikh of library secretary, Chaudhry Ghulam Rasool Rehmani auditor. Other winners included Muhammad Saleem Akhtar Rana, Chaudhry Shahzad Younas, Malik Muhammad Younas, Mehar Muhammad Ilyas Lodhhra, Qazi Tamheed Ahmad, Syed Amjad Ali Shah Gilani and Rana Saghir Ahmad Khan. Out of a total of 553 registered voters, some 511 bar members went to the poll.
MIAN CHANNU: Having pocketed 150 votes, Syed Hassan Raza of the Cheema Group stood winner of the tehsil bar’s top slot. Sheikh Muhammad Shahbaz Sahu clinched the seat of vice-president, Rana Abdul Qayyum general secretary, Mudassar Raza joint secretary, Rana Abdul Rehman finance secretary, Meham Ibnul Hassan Luk library secretary and Mehar Allah Ditta bagged the position of auditor. Meanwhile, the election of the Kabirwala Tehsil Bar Association (TBA) was postponed due to a dispute over voters list.

JHANIAN: Muhammad Latif Khattak of the Lawyers’ Forum bagged the slot of president of the Jhanian TBA with 83 votes, while Muhammad Yousaf Goraya won the position of general secretary by taking 77 votes, Muhammad Shafique Khawar vice-president, Rubina Ismail Qazi joint secretary, Zafar Iqbal Khokhar library secretary and Aamir Riaz Gill finance secretary.
WAZIRABAD: Imtiaz Ahmad Khan and Mian Zakaullah of the N-League lost the seats of president and general secretary to Like-Minded Group-supported candidates Shehbaz Ahmad Cheema and Ishtiaq Ahmad Cheema in the Wazirabad DBA poll. Shehbaz Cheema scored 203 while his rival Imtiaz Khan got 146 votes.
There were three candidates vying for the seat of general secretary, but Ishtiaq Ahmad Cheema, who was supported by Hamid Nasir Chattha Group, won by clinching 195 votes. Mian Zakaullah and Mohammad Akram Araien were pitted against him.
The remaining office-bearers had already been elected unopposed. Mustasam Malik Toor as vice-president, Shaukat Ali Chatttha joint secretary, Abdul Rahim Khalil and Mohammad Imran Samra as joint secretary and auditor, respectively. Other members included Saifullah Cheema, Jamshed Sultan Ghumman, Mohammad Riaz Tabassum Chattha, Mohammad Asghar Gondal, Imran Asmat Chaudhry and Syed Mehmood Afzal Shah.
DASKA: Chaudhry Abdul Latif Ghani of the Rana Arshad Group was elected as president of the Daska Bar Association by defeating his rival group’s Chaudhry Dilawar Hussain Goraya. The former clinched 213 votes while his rival was polled 176 votes.
As many as 388 votes were cast out of a total of 426 votes. The result of the slot of general secretary would be announced after a recount as there was a difference of just one vote between Nasir Ghuman and Mian Nasir.
The position of finance secretary was won by Abdul Waheed Khokhar with 214 votes.
PASRUR: Ashraf Sulehria was elected as president and Muhammad Ilyas Jathol as general secretary of the Pasrur TBA.
MAILSI: Chaudhry Muhammad Aslam got 194 votes and was decaled president of the TBA, while Rao Jangsher won the slot of general secretary by bagging 157 votes. All other seats were won by the Chaudhry Muhammad Aslam Group.