KARACHI: President United Business Group Mr. Zubair Tufail ,Chairman (Sindh Zone) Khalid Tawab, Secretary General(Sindh) Hanif Gohar, along with numerous members of the Executive Committee of FPCCI and office bearers of trade bodies, and other Leaders of UBG have jointly appealed to the DGTO (Director General of Trade Organizations) for immediate legal action against the present management of FPCCI. This appeal is rooted in concerns about embezzlement, mismanagement, and biased decisions made during the recent Executive Committee Meeting of FPCCI. Dr. Ikhtiar Baig, Abdul Sami Khan, Gulzar Feroz, Malik Khuda Bakhsh, Mumtaz Ahmed, Zahid Iqbal Chaudhry, Ikram Rajput and Edgar were also present in the press conference.
In a significant press conference held in Karachi, Zubair Tufail, Khalid Tawab, Hanif Gohar, and other concerned members addressed the issues surrounding the FPCCI management’s actions during the Executive Committee Meeting on October 13, 2023.
The following points outline their concerns, The Executive Committee meeting scheduled for October 13, 2023, was conducted via video conferencing across various cities. Notably, a considerable number of non-Executive Committee members were allowed to participate in the meeting as special invitees, in direct violation of the DGTO’s orders. Individuals like ANJUM Nisar, Shahzaib Akram, Mohammad Ali MIAN, Mirza Abdul Rehman, Sartaj Ahmed Khan, Amjad Rafi, Zakria Usman, Khurram Sayeed, Saquib Fayaz Magoon, and Sheikh Aslam were among those who participated. The meeting notice was issued without providing working papers for the agenda items. Working papers were distributed to Executive Committee members only one or two days before the meeting. Agenda items 7 and 8 of the meeting notice pertained to FPCCI elections for 2024-25, with no working paper provided for agenda item 8, which concerned the formation of an election commission. Suspicion arose that members present at the Karachi, Peshawar, and Quetta stations were not genuine Executive Committee members, but were included as bogus members, seemingly without due authorization. The management of FPCCI made an unprecedented unilateral decision to conduct elections for the formation of the Election Commission, deviating from established norms, the Trade Organizations Act (ToA), Trade Organizations Rules (ToR), and FPCCI’s Articles of Association. The formation of an election commission through a direct election method was inconsistent with customary procedures, where mutual consent typically dictates its formation. The election commission was formed through a show of hands, raising concerns among members, as it departed from regular practice. Members’ objections to this decision were overruled by the FPCCI management. If an election commission was to be formed through an election, it should have been conducted at a single location and through a secret ballot. Conducting it across multiple stations via video conferencing was irregular. The proposed election commission members by the present management were alleged to exhibit bias, as witnessed in previous elections. Many of their decisions were contested at the DGTO office and High Courts, with several overturned rulings still pending. Given these circumstances, the Executive Committee members have earnestly requested DGTO intervention to prevent the formation of a questionable election commission by the present FPCCI management. They have proposed that the elections for FPCCI be conducted under the direct supervision of the DGTO team.