The elections for the management committee of the Lahore Gymkhana will finally be held today after a delay of a couple of months. The elections were originally scheduled for January 25 but the election commission announced that they would hold the polling on January 28, a decision that was opposed by both contesting groups, leading the polling to be scheduled for February 8 after a member of the election commission justice (r) Sheikh Ahmed Farooq resigned days before the elections.
There are two groups taking part in the elections of; one being led by Mian Misbah ur Rehman-the incumbent chairman of the Committee of Management (COM), and Kamran Lashari leading the other group. As many as 15 members are contesting as independent candidates to be elected as one of the members of the 12-member COM.
The other members of Mian Misbah ur Rehman’s group are Mian Parvez Bhandara, Agha Ali Imam, Parvez Bashir Agha, Sarmad Nadeem, Karamat Ullah Chaudry, Zahid Nabi Malik, Shafqat Rana, Tariq Hamid, Aamir Iftikhar, Javed Habib Oberoia, and Khawaja Suhail Iftikhar.
The 12-member panel of the Kamran Lashari group comprises of Shaukat Javed, Sami ur Rahman, Dr Jawad Sajid Khan, Dr Ali Razaque, Mian Javed Zahur, Khawaja Imran Zubair, Ahsan Saeed Mian, Dr Atif Kazmi, Samira Maroof Khan, Khalid Rafiq, and Moeen Sarwar (Booji).
The independent candidates are Rahim Yaqoob Malik, Justice (r) Sajjad Ahmed Sipra, Muhammad Sharif Chaudhry, Qamar Khan (Bobby), Col (r) Hamayun Rashid, Kazim Ali Mehkary, Lt Col (r) Muhammad Azam Khan, Aamir Waheed Chaudhry, Taha Mahmood, Tariq Saeed Khan, Wajid Aziz Khan, Mian Samiuddin, Major retired Javed Nasrullah, Sqn Ldr (r) Ihsan Qadir, and Mian Waqar-ud-Din are contesting as independent candidates.
The Kamran Lashari group has accused the opposite group of delaying the elections repeatedly, claiming that the opposing group had done so because they were having difficulties nominating suitable candidates. Mian Waqaruddin, Mian Samiuddin, Ihsan Qadir, and Javed Nasrullah were earlier contesting from the Mian Misbah group but parted ways from the panel and became independent candidates. They are also likely to win because of their influence among the members of the Lahore Gymkhana.
Talking to Pakistan Today, a candidate of the Mian Misbah ur Rehman panel said that Rehman had not violated any constitutional provision of the club during his tenure. “No irregularity was proved during the 3-year tenure of Mian Sahib. He even went so far as to not use his powers in the last couple of months because elections were due and he wanted that the next committee should make their own decisions after coming into power,” the candidate said, seeking anonymity.
The polling will be held from 9 to 5 pm today under the election commission being headed by Justice (r) Tanvir Ahmed Khan, with 5,480 voters taking part in the polling. The voters will elect a 12-member Committee of Management (CoM) and this committee will select its chairman for the years 2016-2019. In previous years, the elections of the Lahore Gymkhana used to be held every year in December but there hasn’t been any election since December 2013 as the tenure of the chairman was extended to three years through the company act by the committee.
