Following a directive of Sindh High Court, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has withheld the result of annual election. However, according to unofficial results, Haji Fazal Kadir Khan Sherani, has received majority votes on Thursday.
Sherani, backed by a strong group of FPCCI, has obtained almost 95 percent votes in the body’s presidential election held on Thursday while his competitor Senator Haji Lashkari Raisani could obtain only few votes.
However, as Balochistan’s all chambers including Quetta, Lasbela, Gawadar, Makran, Chaman and Pasheen have rejected the nominee of Sherani for the presidential slot which as per the FPCCI’s rules should be filled from the province this year, the Sindh High court through a directive has stopped the body from announcing result of the election. The situation at FPCCI become critical when Raisani group insisted to keep the ballet box sealed honouring the court’s decision of withholding the results of the election while the other group, including Sherani and the businessman Panel tried to open the box and make a counting of votes. To avoid any unfavourable situation, law enforcement personnel including police were also invited inside the Federation House where the police personnel led by an SHO controlled the situation.
Later a committee formed by the two groups decided to keep the ballet boxes sealed until any decision from the court. However, according to sources, Sherani led group has obtained almost 95 per cent of the vote from business representatives of Punjab, Khayber Pakhtoonkhwa and Sindh while Raisani could only get some votes from Balochistan.
Talking to media persons, senator Raisani said that the status regarding the rights of Balochistan was yet to be changed in the country. The fresh election process at FPCCI also proved that the interest group was not ready to give the due rights to the already deprived province. He said his panel would wholeheartedly accept whatever decision is taken by the court.
Though, Raisani, was earlier claimed of having a strong position in the presidential election of FPCCI as he enjoyed the unanimous support of all six chambers of commerce of Balochistan, nomination of Sherani for the slot by the influential group in the body, some Baloch representatives claim, was a conspiracy to hold the group’s monopoly on FPCCI’s affairs. The influential group, they alleged, was trying to deprive the province of the leadership of FPCCI even after 12 years in traditional rotation of president of the body. The president was to be elected from Balochistan province this year. According to a statement of the Federation, the Businessmen panel had already swept all four FPCCI’s Vice President’s seats of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa unopposed in the election of FPCCI for the next two-year term starting from January 01, 2012. The contest was held among the three presidential candidates from Baluchistan namely Fazal Qadir Sherani, Masood Ismail and Mir Haji Lakhni Lashkri. However the group of Ismail was already in favour of Raisani. A total of 130 voters drawn from Management Committee and General Body of federation were to elect the President and other office bearers.
The Business panel led by Tariq Saeed had already claimed that all remaining seats in the election would be swept by the panel already enjoying more than 95 percent majority in the federation. According to sources, the existing president of FPCCI Senator Ghulam Ali would be the beneficiary of the situation developed in the body’s election this year. Interestingly the senator was also a favourite of the existing Business Panel, sources claimed.
