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IHCBA polls: disunity defeats pro-judges panel
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April 20, 2012
The recent polls of Islamabad High Court (IHC) Bar Association have exposed differences among the once united like-minded pro-judiciary groups of lawyers. According to the bar’s election results, pro-judges lawyers – Sardar Abdul Sami and Niazullah Niazi – were adamant to contest election for the office of president despite warnings of colleagues who had forecastdisastrous consequences of their differences and advised them against confronting each other at a time when the government has locked its horns with the superior judiciary.

Results show that Nayyab Hassan Gardezi, the pro-government lawyer, with the help of Chairman Senate Nayyer Bokhari, Babar Awan, People’s Lawyers Forum and some groups of Jamaat-i-Islami secured 429 votes, while both the pro-judges lawyers Sami and Niazi secured 271 and 249 votes respectively. The total votes of the pro-judiciary lawyers were indeed well over 500 and were enough to defeat Gardezi if they had remained united.

Last year, the pro-government lawyer Shoaib Shaheen had secured 432 votes while pro-judiciary lawyer was declared successful as he had secured 578 votes. But this time, the total votes of pro-government lawyer Gardezi were even less compared to the last year’s but still he won.

During 2007, when the former military dictator General (retired) Pervez Musharraf tried to sack the Chief Justice of Pakistan, the unprecedented unity of lawyers not only spoiled his plan, but also contributed towards ending his decade-long dictatorship.

Recently, in a lawyers gathering at Islamabad PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif admitted that the lawyers’ movement had played a key role in the ouster of Musharraf and restoration of the present judges.

However, after the restoration of judiciary on March 16, 2009, the PPP government, which is still facing a number of cases in courts, focused its attention on the lawyers and gave funds to different bar associationsthrough former law minister Babar Awan.

The pro-judges lawyers were also smoking their peace-pipe after the judges’ restoration and seemed more interested in other assignments than investing their time in politics. This resulted in the defeat of pro-judiciary lawyers in the Supreme Court Bar Association’s (SCBA) elections of 2010 when a critic of the judiciary Asma Jahangir defeated Ahmed Owais.

In 2011 elections, Yasin Azad again defeated a staunch activist of judicial movement Rasheed A. Rizvi. Azad won from Lahore, Peshawar, Hyderabad, Bahawalpur, Multan, and Quetta, while Rizvi won from Abbottabad, Islamabad/Rawalpindi and Karachi. Rizvi was fielded by Hamid Khan’s Professional Group, which was prominent during the lawyers’ movement, while Azad had the support of Latif Khosa group, perceived to be the strongest group in Lahore and known as the “People’s Lawyer Forum”.

Chaudhry Mohammad Ashraf, the outgoing president of IHC, bar said he tried to convince both the pro-judiciary lawyers to reconsider their decision, but to no avail. He said it was time for the lawyers to hold that bar but due to their own wrong decisions, the pro-judiciary lawyers despite having majority lost the elections.

Sajjad Afzal Cheema, former president of the IHC bar, said due to differences among the pro-judiciary lawyers, their votes got divided between the two candidates.The total votes of both the pro-judiciary candidates – Mr Sami and Mr Niazi – numbered over 500, and had they got united and fought the election they could have easily won, he added.

They should have realized before contesting the election that lawyers still needed unity as the government’s defiance of the judiciary may lead to another controversy, he said.

Chaudhry Mohammad Khalid, a PLF lawyer, expressed joy over the victory of his group. He said the outgoing office-bearers of the bar belonged to both pro-judiciary and pro-government groups. He said the bar president Chaudhry Mohammad Ashraf was a pro-judiciary lawyer while the general secretary Mohammad Shakeel Abbasi was from the PLF.

According to him, advocate Gardezi would be in a position to force the government for acceptance of lawyers’ demands as he has the backing of some senior PPP leaders.

Advocate Gerdezi had remained the IHC bar president and member Punjab Bar Council during 2008 and he knows the problems and issues being faced by the lawyers.

When contacted, advocate Gardezi said he would try to address the lawyers’ problems as he did in the past.

“Though backing of pro-government groups of lawyers made a crucial role in my victory, I am still loyal to the judiciary,” he said.

The government is implementing the orders of the judiciary in letter and spirit and the day it stops implementing court orders I will not support it against the judiciary, he added.

After the recent victory, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani called Gardezi and congratulated him over his success.Chairman Senate and other PPP leaders also congratulated him. Perhaps, the recent election would be a sigh of relief for them as now the IHC bar will not be hostile for them as it always was. In case the relations between the judiciary and government strainedfurther, unlike past, the new officer-bearers are expected to remain neutral in case they opt not to stand with the government.

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