KATHMANDU: The lawyers, who have thrown their hats into the ring in the Nepal Bar Association (NBA) leadership, said that personal security and safeguarding independence of judiciary were the primary concerns raised by the district-based lawyers.

During their interaction with the voters - the lawyers who come from various districts, the latter were found very much concerned about the judicial corruption as well. "The lawyers are primarily concerned about their own security," Hari Krishna Karki, presidential candidate of progressive panel told The Himalayan Times.

He underscored the need to take care of all professionals like doctors, engineers, professors, advocates and journalists, who have been facing threats in districts.

"A joint mechanism is the need of the hour to address the common problems of such professionals," Karki added.

The 7,000 lawyers across the country will cast their votes to elect 17 executives of the NBA for the next three-year term. The present leadership under senior advocate Bishwo Kanta Mainali will complete its tenure in mid-February.

Prem Bahadur Khadka, who recently visited various districts from east to west, said that almost all the lawyers' demands were similar: independence of judiciary and their security.

"They want to fully practise their profession which they could not do during the last 12 years of insurgency," Khadka said, adding, "Now, they want the NBA to ensure the protection of their profession."

"They want to keep the judicial independence at any cost," said Hari Phuyal, candidate for the post of general secretary from the progressive panel. "They want to develop the NBA as a professionals' body and want to amend Muluki Ain and the court procedures to provide justice on time. Moreover, they want to develop the lawyers' body as a professional body."

Bijaya Mishra, democratic panel's candidate for the post of general secretary, said that that the advocates strongly wanted to develop NBA as their umbrella organisation in a real sense.

"The advocates from the various regions also want to see inclusiveness in the NBA leadership," Mishra added.

Ram Nath Mainali, presidential candidate of the progressive panel, said that those lawyers whom he met were concerned over access to justice to the common people and a clean judiciary. He added that there is a need to fight against corruption and irregularities in the judiciary, which is the major agenda in the election.

Matrika Niroula, who is the presidential candidate of the rebel candidate of the democratic panel, said that the voters wanted new vision in the leadership. "The leadership should have the capacity to tackle the problems of the 21st century."