The battle is on: Three panels in the run for Gymkhana management
Candidates campaigning through SMS, letters and corner meetings.
Kamaran Lashari , Mian Misbahur Rehman , Tasneem Ahmed Noorani
LAHORE:
Three panels – one headed by a business tycoon and two by retired bureaucrats – are preparing to contest annual elections of Lahore Gymkhana Club.
Usually, two groups headed by a businessman and a retired bureaucrat take the field. This year, however, three groups are in the race.
The elections have traditionally been held on December 31. This year they are likely to be held in the last week of January since the Committee of Management (CoM) has yet to hold its annual meeting to set a date. The committee meeting and an extraordinary general meeting are scheduled for January 12.
The polling was postponed for a week in 2007 following the murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
The candidates have started sending SMS and letters and holding corner meetings and making phone calls to the members. Some of them have invited voters to lunches and dinners. Lavish dinners and banquets have always been a feature of the poll campaigns, members say.
Mian Misbahur Rehman, the incumbent CoM chairman, has fielded a panel of candidates, including Mian Pervaiz Bhandara, Zahid Nabi Malik, Pervaiz Bashir Agha, Shafqat Rana and Agha Ali Imam.
Kamaran Lashari, a former bureaucrat, is heading a group supported by Salman Siddique, a former CoM chairman.
Candidates from Lashari’s group include Samiur Rehman, Shaukat Javed, Atif Kazmi, Sarmad Nadeem, Qamar Bobby and Khwaja Imran Zubair.
Tasneem Ahmed Noorani is leading the third penal. Its candidates include Mian Waqarud Din, Mian Samiur Rehman, Javed Nasirullah, Ashan Qadri, Sumera Maroof, Zahid Pervaiz, Muhammad Azam, Iqbal Sheikh and Arif Khan.
The 5,100 voters elect 12 members of the committee. Each voter can vote for 12 candidates.
Misbahur Rehman is considered favourite among the businessmen.
Caste and vocation have greatly influenced elections previously.
Political parties have traditionally not had significant influence on the outcome. This year the Pakistan Peoples Party is favouring Misbahur Rehman, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is backing Lashari and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf is favouring Noorani.
Noorani says, if elected chairman, he would revoke membership of more than 300 members inducted by Siddique.Given a three-way race no group might have seven members needed to elect chairman on its own. “We will hold the annual general meeting on January 12… to remove objections raised by the Punjab Co-operative Societies registrar about the tenure of elected body,” Misbahur Rehman said.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 7th, 2014.
Three panels – one headed by a business tycoon and two by retired bureaucrats – are preparing to contest annual elections of Lahore Gymkhana Club.
Usually, two groups headed by a businessman and a retired bureaucrat take the field. This year, however, three groups are in the race.
The elections have traditionally been held on December 31. This year they are likely to be held in the last week of January since the Committee of Management (CoM) has yet to hold its annual meeting to set a date. The committee meeting and an extraordinary general meeting are scheduled for January 12.
The polling was postponed for a week in 2007 following the murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
The candidates have started sending SMS and letters and holding corner meetings and making phone calls to the members. Some of them have invited voters to lunches and dinners. Lavish dinners and banquets have always been a feature of the poll campaigns, members say.
Mian Misbahur Rehman, the incumbent CoM chairman, has fielded a panel of candidates, including Mian Pervaiz Bhandara, Zahid Nabi Malik, Pervaiz Bashir Agha, Shafqat Rana and Agha Ali Imam.
Kamaran Lashari, a former bureaucrat, is heading a group supported by Salman Siddique, a former CoM chairman.
Candidates from Lashari’s group include Samiur Rehman, Shaukat Javed, Atif Kazmi, Sarmad Nadeem, Qamar Bobby and Khwaja Imran Zubair.
Tasneem Ahmed Noorani is leading the third penal. Its candidates include Mian Waqarud Din, Mian Samiur Rehman, Javed Nasirullah, Ashan Qadri, Sumera Maroof, Zahid Pervaiz, Muhammad Azam, Iqbal Sheikh and Arif Khan.
The 5,100 voters elect 12 members of the committee. Each voter can vote for 12 candidates.
Misbahur Rehman is considered favourite among the businessmen.
Caste and vocation have greatly influenced elections previously.
Political parties have traditionally not had significant influence on the outcome. This year the Pakistan Peoples Party is favouring Misbahur Rehman, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is backing Lashari and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf is favouring Noorani.
Noorani says, if elected chairman, he would revoke membership of more than 300 members inducted by Siddique.Given a three-way race no group might have seven members needed to elect chairman on its own. “We will hold the annual general meeting on January 12… to remove objections raised by the Punjab Co-operative Societies registrar about the tenure of elected body,” Misbahur Rehman said.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 7th, 2014.