PESHAWAR, April 16: Fida Gul of the Islamic Lawyers Forum (ILF) was elected president of Peshawar District Bar Association for the third time in the forum’s annual elections here on Saturday.

Mr Gul received 333 votes against 286 votes polled by the Awami National Party-backed Arbab Bukhtiar from Malgarey Wakeelan, 128 votes by Pir Fida Khalil of People’s Lawyers Forum, 22 and 21 votes by two other candidates, Noor Muhammad Khalil and Akhundzada Pervez, respectively.

Sabitullah Khalil of PLF was elected vice president. He received 248 votes against 216 votes of rivals Mian Jamal Shah got, 151 of Shehzad Gul Shehzad got votes and 149 votes Sheeraz Hussain.

For the post of general secretary, Muhammad Rafique of Malgarey Wakeelan was declared successful.

He got 309 votes against 176 votes of his rival Manzoor Khan Khalil and 132 votes by Anwer Khan.

Against the two seats of joint secretaries, Syed Qaiser Shah and Muhammad Riaz were declared successful. They received 234 and 177 votes respectively.

Their rivals Shah Faisal, Ilyas Qureshi and Khalida Rehman got 155, 139 and 123 votes, respectively.

Ibadur Rehman Qureshi of Malgarey Wakeelan obtained 322 votes and was declared finance secretary.

His rivals Khwaja Aurangzeb Alamgir got 255 votes and Ziaul Haq received 165 votes.

For the four posts of cabinet members the successful candidates are Jamal Khan Afridi, Sahibzada Anwer Ali, Sahibzada Talha Saeed and Zahidullah Khan who received 401, 394, 355 and 388 votes, respectively.

Three major panels of lawyers namely ILF, affiliated with the Jamaat-i-Islami, PLF of Pakistan peoples Party and Malgarey Wakeelan of Awami National Party actively participated in the polls. Out of total 1793 members of the association, 778 members were barred from casting vote due to non-payment of their annual fee.

After his victory, the newly elected president Fida Gul vowed that he would continue to struggle for the rights of his community and would make endeavours for better relations between the bar and the bench.

He said that the confidence bestowed on him by the lawyers community proved that he had worked for their rights in his previous two stints.