The last battle of Pakistan business community's two groups will be fought on SAARC Chamber nominations, as Balochistan High Court (BHC) has suspended both letters written by the incumbent President FPCCI and issued a stay order on implementation.
The two groups - businessmen panel (BMP) and United business group (UBG) - have submitted two separate nominations for President, Vice President and Executive Committee members of SCCI.
Former President Daroo Khan claims that the nominations were made to SAARC Chamber in response to their call for nomination within the stipulated date. The nominations were sent from official email address of President FPCCI as President of the organization to SAARC Chamber secretariat, with a copy to Secretary General, FPCCI.
Iftikhar Ali Malik, who will assume the charge of SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is disturbed with the current infighting between the two groups of the business community which has now reached the SAARC level.
"I am very much disturbed with the current fighting of business community, which is earning bad name for the country," he said, while talking to Business Recorder.
The nominations sent to SAARC Chamber were not objected by Secretary General, FPCCI, because they were not against the Memorandum of Article of Association of the FPCCI.
The nominations were not objected by any member of executive Council during his last executive committee nor were they objected by any Executive Committee member during the first Executive Committee meeting chaired by Anjum Nisar as President of FPCCI.
The sources said, FPCCI requested SAARC Chamber for withdrawal of Daroo Khan's name however SAARC Chamber constitution does not permit the withdrawal of nominations once sent by any National Chamber and received at SAARC Chamber secretariat.
"None of the members nominated in his letter can be replaced as per SAARC Chamber constitution until and unless the member resigns," said one of the business community member on condition of anonymity
On the other hand FPCCI claims that it is contrary to fact that nomination made to SAARC Chamber were not duly approved by executive committee of FPCCI nor were made by the committee constituted in the 2nd last executive committee. The formation of this committee was against the FPCCI constitution and powers of the president. The FPCCI constitution empowers President to make nominations for any national or international forum, so seeking approval from Executive Council is not necessary or mandatory.
SAARC Chamber is facing same situation as in previous years - in 2010 and 2016 - when the sitting president of a national chamber nominated their own names for SAARC CCI platform notably Annisul Huq (Bangladesh) sent his name and Suraj Vaidya (Nepal). Later on their National Chambers tried to withdraw their nominations from SAARC CCI, which was turned down by SAARC CCI, following their constitution.