LAHORE - The annual election of Lahore Press Club held yesterday in the club premises at the city’s famous Shimla Hill in a peaceful, jubilant and enthusiastic environment.
A five member commission headed by The Nation Editor Salim Bokhari conducted the election. The polling started at 9am and continued without any break till 6pm. Tight security arrangements were made for the polling day.
It was a contest for the slots of president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, joint secretary and eight members of governing body between two traditional panels, (Journalist, Progressive). The Writers panel fielded their separate candidates on different positions.
The Journalist had fielded Javed Farooqi for president, Nasira Attique for vice-president, Zulfqar Ali Mehto for secretary, Rana Shahzad for joint secretary and Yousaf Abbasi for treasure seat. Former president Muhammad Shahbaz Mian contested for the second term from Progressive group while Zahid Gogi, Abdul Majid Sajid, Ehsan Shaukat and Sheraz Hasnat fought on vice-president, secretary, joint secretary and treasurer seats respectively.
Total 28 candidates including eight each from Journalist and Progressive groups contested on governing body seats.
Both the groups continued their aggressive election campaigns for four days and visited different media houses to charm voters in their favour. The election day (Sunday) however witnessed more enthusiasm with both the groups were seen making untiring efforts to bag maximum votes in their favour.
As around 2,000 professional journalists are members of the club, every candidate has to make persistent attempt to touch each voter. More than 1,800 voters cast votes in favour of their candidates.
Since the results would come late night, the elections are likely to throw split mandate according to the prediction of some senior journalists.