LAHORE, Oct 26: Members of the Supreme Court Bar Association are all set to elect their office-bearers for the year 2010-11 today. Unofficial results will be announced in the evening while the official results will come out on Oct 30.

The polling will be held from 8:30am to 5:00pm with a one-hour break in the middle for lunch. Strict security measures have been taken for the polling.

Polling stations have been set up at Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Islamabad, Multan, Bahawalpur and Abbotabad.

Lahore will be the hub of election activity as some 1100 of the total 2126 eligible voters in the SCBA election are based here.

At least 300 voters are listed in Karachi and Islamabad/Rawalpindi each, 200 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 100 in Balochistan.

Asma Jahangir, Ahmad Awais and Ikram Chaudhry are the three candidates vying for the SCBA presidency. Ms Jahangir is a former chairperson of Human Rights Commission Pakistan and enjoys support of many renowned lawyers and lawyers’ groups.

Ahmad Awais is a former president of the Lahore High Bar Association and is a candidate of the Hamid Khan-led Professional Group. The third candidate in the presidential race, Ikram Chaudhry, has worked as a vice president of the SCBA and president of Rawalpindi High Court Bar.

In their electioneering, all three candidates have vowed to strive for the independence of the bar and the bench.

For the office of bar’s secretary, four candidates are in the run, including Muhammad Sohail Dar, Malik Munsif Awan, Qamar Zaman Qureshi and Rana Farman Ali Sabir.

For one seat each of vice president from all four provinces, twelve candidates are in the fray, including Jahanzeb Khan Jadoon and Mohammad Mohsin Javed for Balochistan, Malik Manzoor Hussain and Muhammad Arif Khan for Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa, A Hameed Talib Rana, Abdul Sadiq Chaudhry, Malik Muhammad Imtiaz Mahal and Zubair Khalid for Punjab and K.A. Wahab, Shafaat Hussain, Shamsuddin Khalid Ahmed Ansari and Syed Jamil Ahmed for Sindh.

M Saliheen Moghal and Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta are contesting for one seat of additional secretary.

Sanaullah Khan Zahid has already been elected unopposed as finance secretary of the SCBA.