Pakistan Bar Council: LHC dismisses petition challenging electoral roll

Chief Justice Lahore High Court Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry on Tuesday dismissed a petition challenging "electoral roll" of Pakistan Bar Council and praying to postpone the election being held on Wednesday (today). Petitioner Chaudhry Sultan Ahmad Arshad pleaded that an advocate of the SC can become candidate for member PBC but under Legal Practitioner and Bar Council Act 1976, only members of provincial bar councils have right to vote in the election.
He said denying the right of vote to lawyers of Supreme Court was illegal and unjustifiable. The petitioner asserted that when lawyers of SC can contest election of PBC then they should have the right to vote to elect members of top regulatory body of the legal fraternity in the country. Petitioner, therefore, prayed to the court to abolish the impugned restriction by holding it discriminatory and illegal and stayed the election till the final decision on the petition.