LAHORE: A low turnout was seen in the election for 75-member house of Punjab Bar Council (PbBC), the provincial regulatory body of the legal fraternity, on Saturday for a five-year term of 2020-25 apparently due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Out of 26,158 voters of Lahore, around 7,500 exercised their right to vote at the polling booths established in the Lahore High Court.

Although Advocate General of Punjab Ahmad Awais, the returning officer, had announced strict Covid-19 related SOPs for the polling process, a large number of lawyers did not turn up for voting to avoid the crowd.

As many as 399 candidates vied for the 75 seats from all 36 districts including 118 ran for 15 seats of Lahore division.

The total number of voters in the province was 126,679.

Our correspondent adds: Chaudhry Asif Shahzad and Mian Muhammad Arshad Mahar are unofficially winners with 1,750 and 1,550 votes, respectively for two seats of Okara.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2020