OKARA: Elections of the district bar association (DBA) were postponed after both candidates for the slot of president presented different voters’ lists.

They also insisted on conducting election by adding and deleting entries in the voter lists (1002 voters) already approved by the Punjab Bar Council (PBC).

This disputed the voters’ lists which forced the election board chairman to postpone polls and send a letter to the Punjab Bar Council (PBC) to announce a fresh election date.

All was set to start polling in the DBA’s Quaid-i-Azam Hall, but suddenly both presidential candidates Rai Muhammad Arshad Raza and Rao Muhammad Ashraf appeared before EB chairman Najamul Saqib and presented different lists of voters.

Rai Raza’s list was consisting of 14 fresh voters/advocates and he demanded the inclusion of these names as voters.

Similarly, Rao Ashraf presented two separate lists. In the first list, he demanded the inclusion of some names as voters and in the second list he asked the EB chairman to delete some names as voters from the main voters list.

When lawyers of both groups learnt about the situation they started slogans against each other.

Later, a group of senior lawyers, including DBA president Chaudhry Aslam Javed and both contesting candidates, held negotiation in the chamber of senior advocate Chaudhry Riazul Haq to address the issue, but to no avail.

Finally, EB chairman Najamul Saqib announced postponing the DBA elections.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2016