Chairman Businessmen Group (BMG) & Former President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI), Siraj Kassam Teli was of the opinion that politicians, bureaucrats or anyone else cannot be blamed but the business and industrial community was actually responsible for ruining the country as they don't speak the truth, stay silent and remain busy in hailing the rulers at the helm.
"The genuine and honest businessmen should be allowed to come forward while the powerful bureaucrats should always be discouraged and honest officers at lower levels must be promoted to improve the overall scenario of the country", he said, adding that they have given this particular advice to Prime Minister Imran Khan during various meetings who was also of similar opinion but the bureaucrats will not allow any such change and create hindrances.
The business community must start speaking the truth and instead of bringing personal or particular issues to decision makers' notice, they should raise a very strong voice for resolving the general issues, he said. While urging all BMGIANs to immediately start preparations for the next election of Karachi Chamber, he advised them to maintain discipline, unity and struggle really hard to ensure 10,000 voters' turnout, out of a total of around 14,000 eligible voters.
Speaking at a reception hosted by him in honor of BMGIANs, Siraj Teli said, "BMGIANs will have to work really hard so that maximum votes are casted in the next election which would result in confiscation of securities of our opponents as majority of the votes are casted in favor of BMG and the opponents should only be able to get not more than 10 percent votes."
Siraj Kassam Teli, while commenting on the terrible defeat suffered by the opponent in KCCI's Election 2018-19, hoped that they have learnt a lesson and would now act sensibly by refraining from hatching conspiracies. "We are not against elections at KCCI as it reenergizes all BMGIANs, and these elections ultimately go in our favor but our opponents should be brave enough to openly contest with us face-to-face instead of hatching conspiracies on social media and supporting from behind the curtain", he added.
He was of the opinion that discipline is the first step on the road to success and it was really heartening to see that all the BMGIANs were strictly adhering to the discipline under BMG's clear policy that deserve to be saluted for their commendable efforts to dedicatedly serve the citizens of Karachi from KCCI's platform. "Tonight's reception is being hosted to not only celebrate the victory of BMG in KCCI's election but also pay glowing tribute to all the BMGIANs whose unconditional support, all time cooperation and never-ending struggle have resulted in making KCCI one of the most vibrant and largest Chamber of the country", he added.
He said that thanks to the blessings of the Almighty Allah and the support extended by business & industrial community of Karachi, the Businessmen Group has constantly won 21 elections so far since 1998, of which 12 elections were won unopposed by BMG candidates.
He recalled that some of the stiffest elections were held during the period from 1998 to 2001, which were followed yet another tough election in 2004-05 in which Khalid Firoz defeated Khalid Tawab with a margin of around 350 votes while in 2005-06, Haroon Farooki defeated Sultan Chawla with a difference of 670 votes and in 2006-07, Majyd Aziz won the election by securing 1632 votes and his opponent, Zakria Usman hardly fetched 405 votes.
"The whole world has seen the results 2018-19 Elections in which BMG candidates defeated their opponents with double margin as our candidates secured around 3400 votes while the top performer of the opponent group obtained just 1700 votes and we secured all the seats", he added.
Referring to the highest number of voters' turnout at KCCI's Election 2018-19, Siraj Teli said that they have created such an environment in which KCCI voters came out without any issue to vote and support BMG candidates. He said that this victory simply cannot be attributed to a single individual as it was a collective effort of all BMGIANs.
"No matter how excellent the contesting candidate might be, he will hardly be able to obtain 200 to 300 votes on his own. In 2018-19 election, it was observed that only those became victorious who succeeded in securing around 3,400 votes, out of more than 5,000 votes casted. Therefore, this huge number of votes in favor of BMG cannot be attributed to a single individual but it was the result of untiring efforts made by all BMGIANs who struggled really hard and deserve to be appreciated", he added.
Chairman BMG said that during the election campaign, he continued to convince the voters by asking them that if BMG and Karachi Chamber have worked in the interest of public during the last 21 years, then it was the right time to come forward, support BMG and be counted in KCCI's election.