Sheikh Jamil Mehboob Magoon, has denied having said any thing about the resignation of Riaz Ahmed Tata as was mentioned in Business Recorder Report on Friday, January 16th.
In a fax sent to this newspaper he said that the news item "is baseless/not correct."
Magoon in his press conference on December 29th held at the Federation House, which was covered mainly by Urdu press, had admitted that it was decided among the four main leaders of the Businessmen Forum that Riaz Tata will take the turn first and remain President for the first year and on completion of his one year term, Maqsood Ismail will be inducted as President.
He was further quoted having said that along with the above decision it was also decided that Sheikh Maqbool will be made zonal chairman after one month but this was not honoured which resulted in differences and he left the Businessmen Forum. He had also mentioned that Tata's resignation letter was "fake".
Riaz Ahmed Tata was also quoted by the Urdu press having said that Magoon's reference to his remaining President for one year was his (Magoon's) personal opinion.
Needless to mention that the decision about the division of the term of President's office between Riaz Ahmed Tata and Maqsood Ismail was jointly taken by Senator Ilyas Bilour, Mian Habibullh, Munawwar Khan and, Jamil Mehboob Magoon.
Later when the time for changeover came, Magoon, for "obvious reasons" defected the Businessmen Forum and joined the opposition group only to ensure that Tata remained in office for full two years.
A senior business leader, Raja Abdul Rehman, had on the same day (December 29th) when he was shown Tata's resignation letter, had vouched that the signature on the resignation letter was that of Tata.
He had expressed is disgust that the understanding reached earlier was not being honoured.