Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has finalised arrangements for holding its annual election for the year 2016 on December 30. Voting will take place for the posts of president and senior vice-president. Besides, four vice-presidents representing the chamber of commerce and industries from Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab will also be elected in addition to four vice-presidents representing the association of trade and industry.
Voting will start at 9.30am and remain continue till 5pm. The nominees of chambers of commerce and industries including women chambers, chamber for small traders, national level associations, representing industry, trade and services will cast vote in the FPCCI election.
A tough contest is expected between two major groups, Businessmen Panel (BMP) and United Business Group (UBG). Both the groups claim to be in a comfortable position to win the election. This year, a candidate from Federal Area will be elected as president of the chamber. The three candidates contesting on the president seats are Senator Haji Ghulam Ali, a nominee of BMP; Abdul Rauf, a nominee of UBG and Muhammad Aslam Khan Niazi.
A strong contest for the seat of Senior Vice-President is expected between S Khalid Tawab, a nominee of UBG, and Tanvir Ahmad Sufi. Zulfigar Ali Shaikh of UBG and Abdul Manan Khan of BMP are in the run for vice-president seats of Sindh province. There is also one-on-one contest between Faisal Jamal Dashti of UBG and Ismail Suttar on Balochistan province. Moreover, there is a contest between Malik Muhammad Asad Khan of UBG and Mohammad Riaz Khattak of BMP for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chambers' seat. Likewise, there is one-on-one contest between Mian Rehman Aziz of UBG and Chaudhry Muhammad Hussain of BMP for Punjab chambers' seat.
Furthermore, there is a contest between Juma Khan of UBG and Muhammad Shafiq Anjum of BMP on vice-president seat of chambers of small traders. Similarly, there is one-on-one contest between Sajida Zulfiqar of UBG and Qaisra Sheik of BMP on vice-president seat of women chambers. The candidates in the run for four vice-president seats of associations of trade and industry are Muhammad Hanif Gohar, Arshad Farooq, Zafar Bakhtawari, Syed Muhammad Aasim, Faheem-ur-Rehman, Sheikh Amjad Rasheed, Muhammad Naseer and Javed Iqbal Siddiqi.