Hamid Khan Group’s backed justice (R) Rasheed A Rizvi becomes president SCBA

Lahore : PTI has won the presidential slot of Supreme Court Bar Association as Hamid Khan Group’s backed justice (R) Rasheed A Rizvi become president SCBA by getting 1289 votes whereas his opponent Farooq H Naik got 1060 votes.

Former Judge Sindh High Court and President of Sindh High Court Bar Association justice (R) Rasheed A Rizvi was contesting SCBA president election vice Farooq H Naik .

Rashid A Rizvi’s courage during restoration of judiciary movement was highly acknowledged as he challenged MQM in Karachi as leader of Karachi chapter of Lawyers when MQM was extremely powerful in Federal, Provincial and Local government. 5 years before he was defeated by Pakistan People’s Party-backed Yaseen Azad in the elections of Supreme Court Bar Association by 93 votes.

He will be going to replace Ali Zafar who is also son of well known Pakistani lawyer and also ex-President of Supreme Court Bar Association S. M. Zafar. S.M. Zafar was also law minister of Pakistan’s first military ruler General Ayub Khan and also son in Law of Pakistan’s famous singer Malika Pukhraj and brother in law of Tahira Sayed who is also herself a famous singer and a business woman. S.M. Zafar also remained senator from PML-Q platform during General Musharraf era.

Both Ali Zafar and Farooq H. Naik backed by lawyer leader and human right activist Asma Jahangir whose sister Hina Jilani is well known human right activist.

Ex-Chairman of Senate and personal lawyer of ex-President Asif Ali Zardari, Farooq H Naik enjoyed the support of a large number of lawyers attached with the PPP, including former president SCBA Asma Jahangir, former SCBA president Ali Ahmed Kurd and Khurram Latif Khosa.

Farooq H Naik is also real cousin and brother in law of defence minister Khawaja Asif who is son of Khawaja Safdar. Khawaja Safdar raised to political prominence when Pakistan’s third military dictator General Zia Ul Haq nominated him as chairman of Majlis-i-Shoora. In this capacity, he worked as acting President of Pakistan.

Farooq H. Naik had enjoyed posts of Attorney General, Federal Minister of Law and Justice, member of senate of Pakistan. He is currently key member of central executive of PPP.

The voters from Lahore played a decisive role in the polls because around 1,050 of 20,251 voters of the SCBA belonged to Punjab’s capital. The seat of the SCBA secretary was won by Aftab Bajwa who submitted his papers as an independent candidate but Hamid Khan Group announced their support by not opposing him.