All set for the annual elections of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) to be held today (Friday). The Annual Election 2020-21 of the LCCI will start from September 25. The elections for the Corporate Class will be held on Friday while polling on the Associate Class will take place on Saturday. There will be 9 candidates contesting for 7 Corporate Class seats. Polling time will be from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. There will be a one-hour break for Friday prayers. A total of 3,179 corporate class voters will cast their votes. There are seven seats of the Corporate Class and 8 seats of Associate Class while one seat is reserved for women entrepreneur. PIAF-Founder Alliance and Lahore Businessman Front are two main groups who are contesting the elections. The PIAF-Founder Alliance has candidates on all the 16 seats. On the other hand, the LBF has candidates on all the seats of Associate Class while they have only two candidates on the seats of Corporate Class.
According to the list issued by the election commission, Tahir Malik from Trafco Logistics (Pvt) Ltd, Muhammad Nawaz from Farooq Glass Industries, Muhammad Nadeem Qureshi from 4B Gentel International (Pvt) Ltd, Mian Tariq Rehman from Pharmasales International (Pvt) Ltd, Tahir Manzoor Ch from Lever Engineering Industries, Mardan Ali Zaidi from Swera Departmental Store, Abdul Wadood Alvi from Adan Printers, Malik Riaz Iqbal from Nadir Saidjan Industries and Mubashar Naseer Butt from Body Media International (Pvt) Ltd are contesting for the seven seats of Corporate Class. Moreover, Muhammad Kashif Bashir from Muhammad Bashir and Sons, Muhammad Nasir Hameed from S.N.Traders, Maqbool Siddique from Mian Cables, Saleem Asghar Bhatti from from Goshi Electronics, Shahzad Butt from Ferista Enterprises, Muhammad Naeem Hanif from Hian Communication, Shahid Nazir from Filter House, Ali Afzal from Afzal Sons, Amjad Chaudhry from Trade Channels, Mian Javed Ali from Victory Hardware Mart, Ali Raza from Ali Raza Traders, Zain Elahi from Zain Traders, Nabeel Mehmood from Pak Afghan Goods Transport Co, Ch Muhammad Rashid from Royal Traders, Wasim Abbas from Sidra Traders, Sajid Aziz Meer from Meer Brothers, Muhammad Asim from Mughal Traders, Mian Kamran Saif from Mian Kamran Traders, Rana Muhammad Riaz from Master Group, Muhammad Saveed from Saveed Associates, Muhammad Mansha Bhatti from Daily Khadim-e-Aala Lahore and Muhammad Khalid from Lahore Tour Services are contesting for 8 seats of Associate Class. Shireen Arshad from Shireen’s Designer World and Mussarat Nawaz from R.A.Traders are contesting for one seat reserved for women entrepreneur.
The campaign of both the groups has been concluded with dinners in honor of the voters and traders. A dinner was hosted by PIAF-Founder Alliance at Bagh-e-Jinnah Ladies Park on Thursday just before concluding the campaign. It is pertinent to mention here that the campaign for the elections of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) was marred with the COVID-19 and therefore the turnout of votes is also likely to be low this year. The businessmen and traders were afraid of COVID-19 and most of them also preferred not to go outside for the election campaign. Earlier, it used to be special feature of LCCI elections that huge gatherings, lunches and dinners were hosted for the voters but it was not the same this year due to the COVID-19 as only few dinners could be possible this time. Different traders’ bodies and associations used to hold their functions at huge marriage halls and marquees in the past but it wasn’t possible this year.