To vote or not to vote

That is the question members of the HCCI are pondering as two opposing panels remain at loggerheads


Our Correspondent August 27, 2015
Seth Goharullah of Fateh Group of Industries. PHOTO: WWW.HYDCCI.COM

HYDERABAD: The rivalry between two groups of the business community in Hyderabad continues to deny elected representation to their corps through the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI). To crown it all, the elections scheduled to take place on September 21, after a lapse of three years, appear uncertain to bring the elected office bearers.

Although the polls have been scheduled, the incumbent Tajir Dost Panel wants to go ahead with the existing voter's list, which the opposition group, the Businessmen Panel, finds exclusionary. The former seem adamant, even after the Islamabad-based Regulator for Trade Organisations, which functions under the federal commerce ministry, gave a ruling on August 25 vindicating the latter.

The Tajir Dost Panel, headed by Seth Goharullah of Fateh Group of Industries, won the last election held on September 25, 2011. The same panel remains in the saddle, even though its term expired in September 2012 when the scheduled elections were cancelled due to the Sindh High Court's stay order over alleged bogus membership.

Subsequently, the membership of around 700 associate members was also cancelled by 2013 on the criteria that their business turnover was below Rs500,000. The Businessmen Panel, led by Muhammad Amin Khatri of DS Motors, claimed that an overwhelming majority of the sacked members belonged to their group.

They later took this claim to the Regulator for Trade Organisations. In his order, the regulator, Azher Iqbal, termed the condition of the Rs500,000 turnover illegal.



"Hence [the] membership of business concerns whose membership have been cancelled on this ground shall stand restored," reads the order, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune. It further said the voter list for the 2015-16 election should include all the voters enlisted for the 2011-12 election.

The regulator also asked the HCCI to form a two-member scrutiny committee comprising Khatri and a member from the ruling side to examine all the new members by August 31. "The election schedule for 2015-16 should be amended accordingly," Iqbal ordered.

But the Tajir Dost Panel is neither willing to implement the order nor defer the polls. "The three complainants [before the regulator] were not the aggrieved parties [their membership was not cancelled]. Therefore, we consider the order illegal," said Ziauddin, vice-president of the HCCI.

He told The Express Tribune that they will file an appeal before the federal secretary commerce to overrule the judgment. They can also file a plea in the Sindh High Court if the secretary upholds the regulator's order, he added

"But, we will certainly hold the elections on September 21," the HCCI official said. According to him, the existing voter list consists of around 1,100 voters including 126 in the corporate member category and the remaining in the associate class.

However, Khatri and two other leaders of his group, Haji Muhammad Yaqoob and Shafique Ahmed Qureshi, want implementation of the regulator's order. "We will boycott the elections and will challenge them as well if the HCCI defies the ruling," Khatri said, while speaking to The Express Tribune. According to him, the regulator is even authorised to invalidate the polls especially when his own order is being thrown aside.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28th, 2015. 

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