PESHAWAR: The Businessman Forum (BF) of Ilyas Ahmad Bilour and Haji Ghulam Ali led newly-formed Sarhad Business Alliance (SBA) heading towards a neck and neck contest on 20 executive committee seats of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) election 2024-24.
The SCCI is under the control of Ilyas Ahmad Bilour, a former senator and president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) since a period of last over two decades.
However, for the SCCI Election 2024-25, the group is facing challenge from a newly-formed alliance of the industrialists and traders. The newly-formed “Sarhad Business Alliance” is headed by a former KP governor Haji Ghulam Ali.
Both groups have fielded 20 candidates each on executive committee seats of Corporate and Associate Groups and the leadership of both groups are running vigorous canvassing in favour of their candidates. They are carrying a shop-to-shop campaign to garner support of the trading community of the city.
The campaign for BF is run by the Group Leader Ilyas Ahmad Bilour and his son Ghazanfar Bilour, former SCCI presidents Faiz Muhammad Faizi, Zulfikar Ali, Haji Mohammad Afzal, President Anjuman Tajiran KP Shaukat Ali Khan and others.
On the other hand, the election campaign of the candidates of SBA is spearheaded by Haji Ghulam Ali, Syed Zahir Ali Shah and Malik Meher Elahi of the Anjuman-e-Tajiran.
The candidates of the BF on 10 executive committee seats for Corporate Group included Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi, Fazal Muqeem, Hassan Zahideen, Adnan Nasir, Abbas Fuad Azeem, Junaid Altaf, Sabir Ahmad Bangash, Sajjad Zaheer, Ashfaq Ahmad and Aftab Iqbal.
These candidates will face Dr Yousaf Sarwar, Abidullah Khan Yousafzai, Atif Shehzad, Imtiaz Ahmad, Engineer Manzoor-ul-Haq, Abdul Hameed Gurwara, Deen Akbar, Dr Mohibullah Afridi, Malik Mohsin Sajjad and Mohammad Luqman Shah of the Sarhad Business Alliance.
Some of the SBA candidates have remained associated with BF in past and elected to various offices of the chamber. Dr Yousaf Sarwar is a former president of SCCI and son of Ghulam Sarwar Mohmand, who was also a former president of the chamber. Similarly, Abidullah Khan Yousafzai and Abdul Hameed Gurwara have also been served as office-bearers of the Sarhad Chamber.
On the executive committee seats of the Associate Group, the ruling group has fielded Abdul Jalil Jan, Mujeeb-ur-Rehman, Muhammad Nadeem Rauf, Shams-ur-Rehman, Saddam Hussain, Shehryar Khan, Sultan Muhammad, Gul Zaman Khan, Naeem-ur-Rehman and Saifullah.
The candidates of SBA on Associate Group included Ghulam Bilal Javed, Shehzad Rauf, Mohammad Ikram Mohmand, Ikramullah Khan, Mohammad Shahrukh Khan, Sher Zaman, Ashiq Muhammad, Arshad Mahmood, Riaz Hussain and Bakht Mir Jan Durrani respectively.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024