GUJRANWALA, Dec 31: The District Bar Association's election board on Wednesday finalized scrutiny of nomination papers of aspirants, accepting the papers of Advocate Nawaz Khokhar conditionally for the slot of senior vice-president.

According to reports, Advocate Khokhar appeared in the Punjab Bar Council and pleaded that he had filed his nomination papers at the eleventh hour (2:58pm to be precise), which the election board did not accept and declared his rival, Mian Asad Saeed, senior vice-president.

The PBC directed the local Bar election board to accept his nomination paper conditionally while the hearing of the case would be held on Jan 3, 2004. Meanwhile, the nomination papers of three aspirants - Arif Nadeem, Siddiq Nadeem and Babar Chaudhry - were accepted for the slot of vice-president. The authorities concerned rejected the nomination of Rana Asad Saif because of time bar.

Earlier, the papers of Arif Nadeem and Siddiq Nadeem were rejected by the election board on technical grounds. Two female lawyers, Ms Samina Zareen and Ms Razia Nagra, are also in the run for president and finance secretary, respectively. The elections are scheduled to be held on Jan 10.