PESHAWAR: Polling for the election of 28 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council members will take place today (Saturday) in 25 districts of the province.

In total, 142 people are in the running for the council positions.

The polling will begin at 9:00am and will continue until 4:00pm.

The term of the bar council, which is the highest elected body of lawyers in the province, is five years beginning on the first day of January after the general elections to the council.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa advocate general Abdul Lateef Yousafzai, who is also the chairman of the bar council, is the returning officer for the polls, whereas senior civil judges are serving as presiding officers in each of the districts.

The province has been divided into six zones.

In Zone I, Peshawar district has seven seats for which 62 candidates are in the running.

In the same zone, one seat each has been allocated to Nowshera and Charssada districts for which four and three people are contesting respectively.

In Zone II, nine people are contesting for two seats allocated to Mardan district, whereas six candidates are in the contest for a single seat in Swabi district.

In Zone III, three people are contesting against a single seat allocated to Karak district, whereas three are in the running against another single seat jointly allotted to Hangu and Kohat districts.

In Zone IV, five candidates are trying their luck against two seats jointly allocated to Dera Ismail Khan and Tank districts, whereas for a single seat each allocated to Bannu and Lakki Marwat districts, three candidates each are contesting.

In Zone V, 10 people are contesting for two seats of Abbottabad, five for a single seat for Haripur and six candidates for the two seats jointly allocated to Mansehra and Batagram districts.

In Zone VI, four people are in the contest for a single seat jointly allocated to Buner, Malakand and Batkhela, four for a single seat of Chitral, five for a single seat jointly allocated to Upper and Lower Dir districts, three for a single seat in Swat, and six for a single seat of Shangla and Kohistan districts.

Published in Dawn, November 22th , 2014