LAHORE, Jan 10: Polling to elect Lahore Bar Association's new office-bearers was cancelled on Saturday after supporters of rival candidates came to blows and resorted to hooliganism on the district court premises on Saturday.

"The polling which was abandoned minutes before the scheduled closure stands cancelled," election board president Ahmad Hassan Khan said.

The executive committee of the sitting bar, whose term expires on Jan 15, will now meet on Sunday (today) to decide the future line of action.

The unruly incidents took place minutes before the scheduled closure of the polling when supporters of various candidates took the polling station by storm.

In a bid to cast votes, they resorted to highhandedness like pushing their rivals and snatching ballot papers. They also exchanged blows.

At one time, lawyers were seen tampering with ballots outside the polling station. Some lawyers were trying to sell their votes.

This is the first time in the history of the Lahore Bar Association, the largest in Asia, that such incidents have taken place, forcing the election board to cancel the polling.

By the time the polling took an unruly turn, about 2,500 of 5,385 votes had been cast and about 200 lawyers were waiting in queue outside the polling station.

When calm prevailed, presidential candidates Mirza Hanif Beg and Chaudhry Muhammad Naeem gave in writing to the three- member election board that they were willing to get the counting of votes done on the basis of votes cast by then.

Entertaining their request, the board chairman was about to write his decision when the situation took another ugly turn as supporters turned down their plea.

This time they attacked the chairman and snatched the paper on which he was about to write the decision of counting of votes besides ordering sealing of the ballot boxes.

Subsequently, the election board and representatives of candidates held a meeting for about two hours. The talks were also attended by Mr Kazim Khan, vice-chairperson of the Pakistan Bar Council's executive committee, and former Supreme Court Bar Association president Mr Hamid Khan. But no decision was possible because the agitating lawyers would not listen to the board members, their senior leaders and elderly lawyers who were trying their best to save the situation.

After that the election board decided to cancel the process and left the polling station.

Bar president Mr Mansoorur Rehman Afridi told Dawn on Saturday evening that the sitting executive committee would take a decision only if the board failed to take a decision about repoll.

The outgoing bar is still empowered to constitute another election board if the incumbent failed to reach a decision.

Meanwhile, senior lawyers have deplored the event which, they say, goes down in the bar history as 'highly unfortunate'.

GUJRAT: Tariq Javed Chaudhry of the PPP was elected president of the Gujrat Bar Association on Saturday.