Salahuddin elected president, Khalid Mumtaz General Secretary of KBA for 2014

Barrister Salahuddin elected Karachi Bar Association president

Barrister Salahuddin elected Karachi Bar Association president

The city’s legal fraternity elected Barrister Salahuddin as president of the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) and Khalid Mumtaz as KBA secretary on Saturday.

According to unconfirmed results, Zahooruddin was elected as vice president, Amir Haider Shah as joint secretary, Musarrat Khan as treasurer and Sakeena Khatoon as librarian. The voters clearly supported the Salahuddin group against the Mehmood-ul-Hassan group.

Barrister Salahuddin – son of the late Sindh High Court chief justice Sabihuddin Ahmed who himself proved to be more popular among lawyers – got a lead of 200 votes against his opponent Mehmood-ul-Hassan.

Besides Mehmood-ul-Hassan, who contested for president, all his nominated candidates could not win a single seat.

Outgoing president Naeem Qureshi had decided not to contest the elections owing to his ill health. He did not nominate any of his candidates either.

Malir Bar Association President Muhammad Ashraf Samoon expressed felicity over Barrister Salahuddin and his team’s victory.

Samoon said Salahuddin had left no stone unturned to motivate the lawyers to take part in the election activities at the city courts building.

Mehmood-ul-Hassan, who had been the KBA president in 2012 and earlier, was expected to defeat Salahuddin, but Hassan himself lost this time. Hassan had also been the vice chairman of the Sindh Bar Council thrice.

Barrister Salahuddin himself has been a prominent leader of the lawyers at the Sindh High Court Bar Association and other legal bodies of the lawyers.

Khalid Mumtaz elected Karachi Bar Association General Secretary

Khalid Mumtaz GS KBA for 2014

This is why this time a large number of lawyers regarded as advocates of superior courts, especially the Sindh High Court, which also enjoys the membership of the KBA, turned up at the polling booths set up at the city courts building.

The voters also elected 11 members of the governing body. The counting was still in progress at the time this report was filed.

Of the 5,730 registered voters, around 3,500 cast their votes in the KBA Elections 2014 to elect the association’s office-bearers.

District and Sessions Judge Ahmed Saba presided over as the chief election commissioner, while additional district and sessions judges performed the duties of presiding officers.

Senior civil and family judges of the East, West, South and Central districts carried out the duties of assistant presiding officers, while judicial magistrates performed the duties of polling officers.

Polling booths remain opened from 9am to 5pm and the lawyers demonstrated a lot of zeal and excitement as they came to the city courts to participate in the polls.

Some women lawyers chanted slogans against each other, but senior lawyers intervened and put a stop to it. On the whole, the election activities were carried out peacefully.

Hundreds of cases could not be heard by the courts because of the election. The under-trial prisoners brought to the courts were sent back to jail without their cases being heard. (The News)

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