LAHORE - Malik Arshad of the Friends Group led by Asma Jahangir notched the top slot of president of the Lahore Bar Association for 2018.

He defeated his rival Asim Cheema of Hamid Khan’s Professional Group by a margin of 1,100 votes. Malik Arshad bagged 3,075 votes, while runner-up Cheema got 1,861 votes.

For the two slots of vice presidents, Chaudhry Fawad Ramay and Mehr Tanvir Iftihar were declared the winners among three other candidates. Mian Asif Ali won Model Town’s vice-president seat.

Malik Sohail Murshid and Faraz Loan won the two slots of secretary by defeating their six rivals, including Asif Chohan, M Azeem, Chaudhry Qadir Nawaz Ranjha, Rana Kashif Saleem, Abid Hafeez Virk and Malik Maqsood Khokhar.

For the seat of joint secretary, Muhammad Usman Bhatti was declared the winner. He secured 1,885 votes and defeated his three rivals, including Tayyaba Mubarak and Makhdoom Shah Muhammad. Shabnam Bano won finance secretary’s seat, Rana Amir Farooq was elected library secretary and Sultan Mehmood Mian was elected auditor.

Traditional fervour and zeal was observed on the day of election. Roads and streets were decorated with banners and posters of the candidates while feats were held for the voters. The voters, however, cast their votes through the biometric system.

According to the chairman of the election board, 5,136 voters exercised their right to vote to choose their new leadership. As many as 7,300 voters got themselves registered for biometric process although the total voters of the bar were over 18,000.

The polling started at 10:00 am which continued till 5:30pm and no major scuffle was reported between lawyers.

Talking to reporters, Asma Jahangir said they had tried their best to remove weaknesses in the judicial system. She hoped that the bench and the bar would move forward. Hamid Khan, the head of the Professional Group, said they would protect the judiciary from all those hatching conspiracies against it. “We are with the judiciary,” he vowed, saying “the relation between bar and bench will be strengthened”.

On the other hand, a worst traffic mess was seen on the election day, as roads leading to sessions courts were blocked. High security arrangements were made on the occasion.