LAHORE - The PIAF-Founders Alliance has made another clean sweep by winning all 7 seats of LCCI Associate Class for year 2017-18, paving way for the Alliance to have its president, senior vice president and vice president.
Total 3342 votes were polled out of 8808 while 28 votes were rejected due to technical reasons. PIAF-Founders Alliance got 1795 panel votes while the Lahore Businessmen Front got 869 panel votes.
The PIAF-Founders Alliance candidates Fahim ur Rehman got 2253, Muhammad Hanif 2162, Muhammad Chaudhry 2149, Kaleem Ahmed 2098, Chaudhry Aurangzeb 2100, Dr Shahid Raza 1980 while Lahore Businessmen Front candidates Amjad Chaudhry got 1238, Mian Javed Ali 1171, Usman Ghani 1060, Sajid Aziz Mir 1025, Shahzad Aslam 982, Muhammad Javed 1037 and Raja Hassan Akhter got 1014 votes.
It is to be noted that the Alliance has already swept the first phase of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (LCCI) election as its all candidates of corporate class seats have been elected unopposed and no nomination papers were submitted by the rival group of Lahore Businessmen Front.
The group has also won the women seat unopposed in the election held for 2017-18.
The PIAF-Founder Alliance corporate class candidates who won the elections unopposed included Adeeb Iqbal Sheikh, Mian Tariq Misbah, Khawar Rashid, Muhammad Wasim, Bau Bashir, Khaliq Arshad, Shehbaz Aslam and Javed Iqbal Bhatti. The woman candidate from the alliance who was elected unopposed is Nabila Intisar. The final results will be announced on September 29 in scheduled Annual General Meeting.
The United Business Group (UBG), the ruling group of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry for the last three consecutive years, felicitated the newly-elected candidates of the LCCI on seats of Associate Class.
UBG chairman Iftikhar Ali Malik said the opposition could not field any candidate in corporate class to match caliber of the Founder-PIAF alliance candidates which resulted in winning all corporate sector seats unopposed and this reflects the unflinching repose of confidence on the top leadership of the alliance comprising all seasoned former presidents of the chamber.
Now victory of Associate Class seats indicates that alliance is enjoying the full support and confidence of the business community. He said the alliance has been winning the LCCI elections for the last 16 years and always upheld the glory of safeguarding the interests of the business community at national and provincial levels adding that he never compromised in his life over the welfare of the traders and highlighted their problems.
He said that founders’ candidates backed by the UBG are also winning elections unopposed in other regional chambers across the country as no one from the opposition camp have come forward to contest UBG backed candidates.
PIAF-Founders Alliance Mian Anjum Nisar pledged to continue to raise voice for the solution of the problems being faced by the business community. He said that the alliance had fielded sector specialists as their candidates for the LCCI executive committee with the sole objective to forward solid proposals to the government for economic progress and prosperity. He said the business community has reposed confidence in PIAF-Founders Alliance in Associate Class also in the larger interests of the economy of the country.
The newly-elected corporate class member Adeeb Iqbal Sheikh said that all major markets of the city had announced to support alliance in LCCI annual elections. He said that the alliance is moving in the right direction and sincerely working for the cause of the business community.
Soon after the announcement of results, Chairman PIAF Irfan Iqbal Sheikh thanked the voters for reposing confidence in PIAF-Founders Alliance. He said that the number of votes cast in favour of the PIAF-Founders Alliance was enough to prove that the business community was with the Alliance. He paid rich tributes to the leadership of the PIAF-Founders Alliance for putting in their best efforts to ensure a comfortable victory. He said that all efforts would be made to facilitate the members of LCCI for smooth functioning of their businesses. New office-bearers will assume the charge of their offices on October 1.