KARACHI: Things have started to appear ambiguous as the annual election of the board of directors of Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) gets nearer. Various perceptions are currently hovering over the country’s largest bourse. According to KSE sources, some 170 active members would be electing five out of nine candidates, most of them new faces, to the directorship of KSE for the calendar year 2011 on December 29.
Zafar Siddiq Moti, Abdid Ali Habib, Haji Ghani Haji Usman, Abdul Majeed Adam, Mohammad Sohail, Ashraf Bava, Azhar Ahmad Batla, Mohammad Azam Khan and Muhammad Qasim Lakhani would be contesting the election on coming Wednesday.
Among the aforementioned candidates, the first four are senior and therefore stronger candidates, while the last five are fresh faces.
Sources informed Pakistan Today that initially some 10 members had filed their nominations that subsequently came down to nine after Amin Yousuf Lakhani withdrew his papers. Whereas the highest wining vote ranges between 105 and 110, the lowest one stands at 67 for the KSE polls.
“The ballot box will be sealed at 3pm in the office of the Exchange by the scrutinisers or in their absence, by the alternate scrutinisers in the presence of the candidates or their authorised representatives,” noted KSE notice number KSE/N-6828. Sources said the scrutinisers would announce poll results between 8 and 9 pm. According to the pessimistic school of thought, the so-called elections worth not more than an eyewash or, to say, a regular tradition continuing for last many years. “This may well be dubbed a selection and not election,” claimed the sources at KSE.
They said the so-called elections had always been under the influence of a group of some powerful stock brokers at KSE. The influential figures were from the Arif Habib Group, AKD Securities Limited and Jhangir Siddiqui Group, sources claimed. “These groups, being major stakeholders at Karachi stocks, always influence and play a decisive role in the results of KSE board election,” sources told Pakistan Today.
They claimed that the three big brokers were well known for selecting and then lobbying support for the selected director hopefuls. “You, as a member voter, would receive from any of the groups close to you a list scribed with the names of candidates to be voted for,” they claimed. Sources maintained that given the KSE members’ dispute with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) over a member chairman, the bigwigs at local bourse wanted a group of active members to take over the directorship.
They said that the said influential groups had already selected names of Zafar Moti, Abdid Ali Habib, Haji Ghani Haji Usman, Abdul Majeed Adam and Mohammad Sohail, most of them sitting directors, for filling the slot. “It was Azam Khan, swiftly followed by Bava, Batla and Lakhani, who filed his papers against the will of the big brokers,” sources added.
Perhaps, this is for this reason that the five contestants are said to have a stronger position against their, what the sources called them, ‘junior’ competitors. As for manifesto of the election, sources disclosed that voters were expecting the hopefuls to touch upon the lingering issues of a member chairman of KSE and the long-awaited leverage products.
