After day-long deliberations, Businessmen Panel (BP), announced on Sunday Senator Ghulam Ali as its presidential candidate, but withheld the announcement for vice presidents candidature ship for Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) 2010 elections.
Group leaders said BP would announce its candidates for vice president on December 23 one-day before final date-December 24, for submission of papers for FPCCI elections. The polling will be held in Karachi on December 29. Among prominent BP leaders, who attended the meeting, include Advisor to Prime Minister on Textile Itkhtiar Baig, chairman Tariq Sayeed, co-chairman Iftikhar Ali Malik, Zubair Ahmed Malik, Senator Ghulam Ali, Rehmatullah Javed, Dr Sheala and S.M. Munir.
Businessmen Panel (BP) leaders claimed that 138 members of chambers and trade associations attended Sunday's meeting and it a good show of majority to win FPCCI elections comfortably. Addressing the meeting, group chairman Tariq Sayeed said BP enjoys trust of Pakistani business community and its four wins over rival group Businessmen Forum (BF) were ample proof. He said BP would also win the coming Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) elections with overwhelming majority.
Senator Ghualm Ali hails from Khyber Pukhtunkhawa. He is son-in-law of JUI Chief Maulana Fazalur Rehman. After his announcement as presidential candidate Senator Ghulam Ali thanked the group leaders for assigning him this important post to lead the business community from Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) platform. Ghulam Ali assured the group leaders that he will follow the footsteps in performing his duties as FPCCI president if elected.
Businessmen Panel (BP) assigned Ikhtiar Baig the task to prepare a strategy for early rehabilitation of sick units of textile and banking sectors. Thousands of industrial units mostly of textile sector are sick at this time and BP wanted to find a solution to the government for their revival.
The meeting appreciated Iftikhar Ali Malik's efforts in constructing FPCCI's capital office in Islamabad. FPCCI's capital office is under construction at the cost of Rs 250 million. Iftikhar Ali Malik in his address assured the meeting that as a chairman of building committee, he will make sure that Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) office gets ready for official use by June 2011. S. M. Munir said today's meeting was largely attended and it was a show of trust of business community of Pakistan in BP leadership.