HYDERABAD, Jan 22: The South Asia Lawyers Forum (SALF) on Monday rejected the results of Hyderabad District Bar Association (HDBA) annual elections held on January 20 and demanded re-election under the supervision of high court judges.

SALF Pakistan Vice-Chairman Abbas Jafri Advocate, Mohammad Aijaz Bhawani and Mohammad Munaf said in a statement that reports about massive rigging in the bar elections had thrown the entire election exercise into doubt.

They accused the election commissioner of issuing ballot papers to voters without checking their cards and referred to many other reports that the same member had cast more than one votes without even getting noticed.

They said that they had reports that two ballots boxes had been changed during interval and when they had to be opened for counting the election commissioner did not even have keys to the two ballot boxes and the locks had to be broken.

Many members present on the occasion had raised objections to the incident but the election commissioner did not pay them any heed, they

said and demanded that the president of Pakistan, chief justice of Supreme Court and chairman of Sindh Bar Council should order an inquiry into the bar elections, declare them null and void and order re-election.

ENCROACHMENT: The Building Control Authority of the Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) has asked the builders to remove the materials they had dumped alongside roads and streets much to the inconvenience of pedestrians.