LAHORE: Rana Zia Abdul Rehman of Hamid Khan-led Professional Group of lawyers won the top slot of president of the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) in election for 2016-17 held on Saturday.

Mr Rehman secured 4,279 votes while his rival Ramzan Chaudhry of Asma Jahangir-led Independent Group got 3,795.

Electronic voting was the most significant aspect of this year’s election, which enabled the election board to announce the result within half an hour after the polling ended at 6pm. The election board’s chairman Shahzad Shaukat conducted the polling on biometric system with the support the Punjab University’s IT department. Students of the department were present there for the guidance of the voters. Around 9,000 votes were cast.

The election board would re-examine the voting process on Monday as losing candidate Ramzan Chaudhry expressed his reservations about the voting.

Sardar Tahir Shahbaz was elected vice president by bagging 2,065 votes. Chaudhry Muhammad Saleem stood the runner-up by obtaining 1,501 votes. Other losing candidates of the VP’s slot were Sheikh Sakhawat with 1,113 votes, M. R. Awan with 1,327, Rashid Lodhi with 1,362 and Mian Waseem with 668 votes.

Independent group’s Ans Ghazi won the slot of secretary and obtained 3,912 votes defeating his main rival Sharjeel Adnan Sheikh, who got 3,053 votes. Lawyer’s wings of PML-N and PTI supported Mr Sheikh, son of senior lawyer Akram Sheikh, while PLF lawyers’ forum supported Mr Ghazi. Jawwad Ashraf and Uzma Razzaq got 605 and 497 votes, respectively on the same slot.

Syed Asad Bokhari was elected as finance secretary. He bagged 3,721 votes while his main rival Deeba Khan got 2,547. Another candidate Muhammad Zeeshan Aamir secured 1,758 votes.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2016