Senator Ilyas Bilour led ruling Businessman Forum (BF) has started electing young businessmen and mostly kin to head Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), premier chamber of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The leadership of the chamber like last year has once again elected another young president Dr Yusuf Sarwar Mohmand, the son of a close confidant of Senator Ilyas Bilour, Ghulam Sarwar Khan Mohmand, who has already served as president of the trade body for two terms. The outgoing president, Afan Aziz was also the son of another former president, Mohsin Aziz.
Senator Bilour-led panel of candidates is sweeping or electing unopposed since 2002, when the alliance between BF and late Faiz Rasool Group ended. Since then, Senator Bilour group is facing no opposition in the chamber's politics. The rivals of the group are either settled in Senator Ghulam Ali dominated Tribal Area Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TACCI) and Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI). Interestingly, the ruling groups in that both bodies have also elected their kin to head their respective trade bodies.
Dr Yusuf Sarwar Mohmand has become fourth president with unique precedent whose father was also a former president. Three other such presidents were included Jamshid Savul, Afan Aziz and Ghazanfar Ilyas Bilour. Jamshid Savul was the son of Haji Abdul Aziz Savul, while Afan Aziz is the son of Mohsin Aziz and Ghazanfar Bilour is the son of Senator Ilyas Bilour.
The ruling group due to tight grip on the affairs of the chamber had elected a very few others to head the trade body that included Liaquat Ahmad Khan, Sharafat Ali Mubarak and Riaz Arshad. Otherwise, supporters can think and dream only for the posts of vice presidents, which are also mostly the relatives of the leadership of ruling group. Sarhad Chamber of Commerce was established in 1958 with Gul Mohammad Khan as its founding president while Syed Phool Badshah and Syed Tajmir Shah had also headed the body. Before, the present group late Yunas Elahi Sethi have ruled the chamber for a long period and he , himself, remained president for five terms.