Lawyers backed by the Awami National Party (ANP) have won at least 12 of the 28 seats of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council, outperforming other groups in polls held across the province on Saturday, according to provisional results.

The unofficial results released on Sunday revealed that three candidates of Malgari Wakilan (MW), which is affiliated with the ANP, two of the PTI’s lawyers wing and an independent candidate were elected on six of the seven seats of Peshawar.

Meanwhile, there were conflicting reports about the results for the seventh seat until the last updates were received.

Those who were declared successful in Peshawar included Khizar Hayat Khazana, Fazal-i-Wahid and Babar Khan Yousafzai of MW, Ali Zaman and Sophia Noreen of the Insaf Lawyers Forum (ILF) and an independent candidate, Muhammad Saeed.

As for the winner for the seventh seat, initially Rafiq Mohmand of MW was reported as successful, but later reports also emerged about the victory of a female candidate, Khushnood Zakirullah.

The official result of the elections will be announced on November 4.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Advocate General Shah Faisal Uthmankhel, who is also chairman of the KP Bar Council, was the returning officer for the polls.

According to unofficial results for other cities, independent candidate Fida Afridi bagged the bar council seat in Nowshera, Zarbadshah of MW and Asfandyar of Islamic Lawyers Forum won in Mardan and Syed Mubashir Shah of MW emerged victorious in Swabi.

Meanwhile, Said Hakeem of the Peoples Lawyers Forum (PLF) won the joint seat for Buner and Malakand, Inayat Khan of MW won in Swat and Fawad Khan of the Jamiat Lawyers Forum (JLF) won in Shangla.

Mohammad Ali Khan, who is supported by the PML-N, and Shah Faisal, an independent candidate, won bar council seats in Abbottabad.

Waqas Raza of the ILF and Waqarul Mulk of the JLF, who was also supported by ILF, won from Mansehra. Shahid Mahmood, having the support of the ANP, bagged the Haripur seat.

Hashmat Khan of the PLF and Ahmad Ali, who were also supported by ANP, won in Dera Ismail Khan and Farooq Sabir of the ILF emerged victorious in Lakki Marwat.

Ahmad Farooq Khattak of MW won the Karak seat, while Imaad Azam, supported by the ANP, won in Kohat. Shah Hussain of the MW bagged the Bannu seat, Ikram Hussain of the Islamic Lawyers Forum won in Chitral Upper and Lower, while Shah Faisal Yousafzai of the MW won the joint Dir and Bajaur seat.