Pro-AL panel sweeps Bar Council polls

Awami League-leaned Sammilita Ainjibi Samannay Parishad (SASP) has swept the Bangladesh Bar Council polls, bagging 10 of the 14 executive member posts Thursday.
Former president of Supreme Court Bar Association and SASP leader Abdul Baset Majumder told BSS that their panel got majority with 10 seats and he secured most number of votes.
Bangladesh Bar Council is a Statutory Autonomous Body of the Government constituted under the Bangladesh Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Order, 1972.
It consists of 15 members of whom the Attorney General for Bangladesh is one and is the ex-officio Chairman. Others are elected by advocates for a term of three years from amongst themselves, of whom seven from general seats and seven from seven zonal or group seats.
The winning candidates are: M Amirul Islam, Abdul Baset Majumder, Abdul Matin Khasru, ZI Khan Panna, Nazubullah Hiru, HR Zahid Anwar, Ibrahim Hossain Chowdhury Babul, Parvez Alom Khan, Md Yahia and Md Rezaul Karim.
According to the unofficial results, M Amirul Islam bagged 14,181 votes, Majumder 15,235, Khasru 14,397 and Panna bagged 13,190 votes.
Current vice-chairman Khandakar Mahbub Hossain, AJ Mohammad Ali, AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon and Kayemul Hoque won from the pro-BNP, Jamaat Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Oikya Panel (JAOP).
Of them, Khandakar Mahbub bagged 14,354 votes, Ali 13,201 votes, and Khokon 15,138 votes.
"Bar council is a welfare organization for the lawyers. But the sad thing is, this council carried out political agenda of a particular party in the past and the lawyers were looking for change. This result is the outcome of that change," Majumdar said.
The voting took place yesterday and by this morning, it became clear that the pro-AL panel, thanks to its united panel, is once again winning the bar council election.
On Wednesday, leaders of both the SASP and JAOP expressed hopes of victory of their respective panels in the polls as a good number of voters from 43,302 members cast their ballots in 77 polling centers throughout the country.
A total of 61 candidates fought for the 14 executive member posts. Of them, 32 vied for seven general seats and 29 for seven zonal seats. In all, 4 panels had been formed to contest the bar council polls.
-SS