The newly established Jamaat-i-Islami (JI)'s affiliated Al-Khidmat Group has challenged the Senator Ilyas Bilour's ruling group, Businessman Forum, in the election of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI) on four seats of the executive council reserved for the associate class of the chamber.
The Senator Bilour's led group Businessman Forum has been ruling the SCCI since last eight years and had swept all elections during the period. However, rival groups have raised fingers on the transparency of each poll. The election is being held on Wednesday (today) at Chamber House. There were two major groups in the politics of the Sarhad Chamber, ruling Businessman Forum and Tariq Saeed's led Businessman Panel. The local chapter of the Businessman Panel was led by the late Faiz Rasool, who had served SCCI for two terms as president.
With the demise of the Faiz Rasool last year, the group has become inactive in the politics of the trade body and was not participating the polls. In the wake of the dormant role of the Businessman Panel, the four candidates of the Businessman Forum on corporate class and seats reserved for town associations and women had already elected unopposed.
For the remaining four vacant seats a total of eight candidates with four each backed by the ruling Businessman Forum and Al-Khidmat Group are facing each other. The candidates of forum are included Usman Bashir Bilour, Mazhar-ul-Haq, Javed Akhtar and Zulfikar Ali Khan, while the candidates of Al-Khidmat Group are included Haji Zahir Shah, Haji Qadeer Gul, Mohammad Hassan Shinwari and Iftikhar Ahmad.
The uncontested returned candidates of the Businessman Forum on the seats reserved for corporate class are Haji Rab Nawaz, Ghulam Dastagir, Haji Bakht Mohammad and Suhail Hashmat while M Saleem Javed and Noshaba Noor have been elected on the seats of town associations and women respectively.
On contact of this scribe, the chairman of Businessman Panel, Senator Haji Ghulam Ali said that their group is fully supporting Al-Khidmat Group, adding that due to the undemocratic traditions Sarhad Chamber was fastly receding its effectiveness.
He said that the absence of the democratic values has isolated the chamber from mainstream trade bodies of the country, while Tariq Saeed led Businessman Panel was ruling the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) as well as all four vice presidents are also their nominees. Senator Haji Ghulam Ali, who is arch rival of the Bilour family in both national and trade community politics said that the Businessman Panel backed United Group had swept the election of All Pakistan Commercial Exporters Association (APCEA) and have clinched all four contested executive seats. The result, he said reflects the confidence of the business community in the leadership of the Businessman Panel.