Asma Jahangir’s Friends Group wins LBA presidency

LAHORE: Asma Jahangir led Friends Group managed to secure the presidency of Lahore Bar Association (LBA) 2018, with its candidate Malik Arshad toppling Asim Cheema of Hamid Khan’s Professional Group.

According to unofficial results, Arshad remained ahead of his rival candidate by over 740 votes, while his vote count is said to be 1,710. Cheema was behind him with 1,007 votes, indicating a victory for Arshad.

A total of 39 candidates contested the election for 11 different slots and there was a one-on-one contest for the presidential slot.

Mehar Tanveer Iftikhar, Asad Ali, Ijaz Basra, Chaudhry Fawad Ramey and Rana Naeem contested for two seats of vice presidents. Moreover, Rana Kausar Ali, Syed Mujtaba Kazmi, Mian Asif were also vying for vice president seat of Model Town.

Rana Manzoor Ahmed, Syed Zahid Hamdani, Irfan Khichi, Aziz Bhatti, Muhammad Sindhu, and Mian Sakhawat stood for vice president seat from Cantt courts.

Furthermore, there were eight contesters namely Rana Kashif Saleem, Malik Sohail Murshad, Chaudhry Qadir Nawaz, M Azeem, Asif Chohan, Abid Hafeez, Faraz and Maqsood Khokhar for the two seats of secretaries.

For one seat of joint secretary, Tayaba Mubarak, Makhdoom Shah, Chaudhry Tehseen Tahir and Usman Bhatti were also in the race.

Furthermore, for one seat of finance secretary, the contesters Shabnam Bano, Razia Sultana, Raja Numan and Imtiaz Gujjar were contesting.

Interestingly, it was for the first time that biometric machines were used for the electoral process.

Election board chairman stated that 5,136 voters exercised their right to vote. As many as 7,300 voters got themselves registered for the biometric process, although the total voters of the bar are over 18,000.

The polling started at 10 am and continued till 5:30 pm with no untoward incident reported.