Lahore Gymkhana goes to polls today

LAHORE – Hectic lobbying and canvassing reaches its epitome for the coveted slot of chairman Lahore Gymkhana, as the panel led by incumbent chairman and prominent businessman Misbaurrehman come face-to-face with the panel led by a retired bureaucrat Ziaurehman on Thursday.
Efforts on collective and individual levels have been witnessed prior to the elections for throughout December. Both panels threw dinners and parties in Lahore Gymkhana to contact and woo maximum number of voters.
The elections for the coveted post of chairman are held annually in the last week of December.
This year the management committee has decided December 30 for the election of members, who will then elect the chairman from amongst one of them.
Both the candidates for the slot of chairman are old players in the gymkhana politics and have members of the business community, retired and serving bureaucrats and retired army officers. Both Misbaurehman and Ziaurehman have already held the post of chairman in the past as well.
There are 12 members each in both panels led by Mian Misbaurehman and Ziaurehman. The panel led by Misbaurehman consists of businessmen, bureaucrats and a retired army officer. Misbaurehman has remained the chairman of Lahore gymkhana thrice. He has also held the posts of Lahore chamber of commerce and industry (LCCI) president, Pakistan pharmaceuticals association chairman, besides having remained the president of the Punjab and Lahore chapters of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). He also currently holds the post of chairman Pakistan Sui Northern Gas and is on the board of Pakistan Steel Mills.
The panel led by Misbahurehman consists of Zahid Nabi Malik, Shafqat Rana, Zia Haider Rizvi, Khwaja Imran Zuberi, Khalid Ikram Malik, Mrs Sumera Nazir, Pervaiz Bashir Agha, M Saeed Khan, Major (r) Talha, Agha Raza and Aslam Shami.
Even last year the panel led by Mian Misbaurrehman won 10 seats out of 12, losing only 2 seats to the opposing panel. On the other hand, Ziaurehman has also been the chairman of Lahore gymkhana twice and is a retired federal secretary.
The panel led by Ziaurehman also consists of businessman and bureaucrats. Besides Ziaurehman, the panel consists of Kazim Ali Mekri, Rai Mansoor, Mian Samiuddin, Samiurehman, Mian Ijaz, Javed Nasrullah, Farooq ul Majeed, Shamsad Ali Khan, Hameed Sethi, Khalid Rafiqui and Dr Atif Kazmi.
There are also two independent candidates for the slots of members. They are Qamar Khan and Qazi Moinuddin.
The total number of votes is 3,900 and each voter can cast a maximum of 12 votes each to elect 12 members to the committee of management. Voters are free to cast their votes to candidates from both panels and even individual ones. The committee of management further elects a chairman from amongst the elected members.
The voters can cast their votes between 9am and 5pm on today.