LAHORE, Oct 31: Munir A Malik, a candidate supported by the Hamid Khan-Ashraf Wahla group of lawyers, was leading with a narrow margin of 12 votes against the Malik Qayyum group candidate Raja Haq Nawaz in a close contest for the office of the Supreme Court Bar Association president when last reports came well past midnight.

Munir Malik won by a comfortable majority of some 55 votes from seven other polling stations except Lahore by the evening. But counting of votes was in progress in Lahore till late in the night and the final result was expected by the small hours of the day.

Munir Malik won majority votes from Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta and was trailing behind Raja Haq Nawaz in Islamabad, Multan, Bahawalpur and Abbotabad. More than 650 of 872 votes were cast in Lahore and the counting for the presidential candidates started around 10pm.

As for the office of the SCBA secretary, Syed Zulfiquar Ali Bokhari of the Hamid-Wahla group was way ahead of his rival when the last reports came in.

Earlier reports suggest that Supreme Court lawyers showed great enthusiasm during the polling which was held at eight polling centers across the country.

In Lahore, more than 650 of 782 registered voters cast their vote.