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| August 19, 2003 | Tuesday | Jumadi-us-Sani 20, 1424 |
Pasha group wins CDA referendum
ISLAMABAD, Aug 18: The government-backed Capital Development Authority Employees’ Union (Pasha group) on Monday won the referendum in the CDA by a margin of about 500 votes.
According to an unofficial result, the group secured 3,775 votes while the CDA Employees’ Federation (Dogar group) and the CDA Mazdoor Union (Chaudhry Yasin group) got 900 and 3285 votes, respectively.
About 8,000 votes were cast against 9,500 total registered votes.
The referendum was conducted by the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC) and its official result would be announced by the commission on Tuesday.
About seven votes were challenged, as many found missing, two were expired and 57 were declared invalid, the NIRC officials said.
The event remained peaceful and no untoward incident was reported in any part of the city. Some 24 polling stations had been set up in Islamabad and one at Gulehrah Gali (Murree).
The capital was presenting a scene of general elections as the city had been flooded with banners, posters and placards of the participating groups.
The Islamabad administration has taken appropriate measures to provide security and maintain law and order during the referendum.
Talking to Dawn, the leader of the winning group, Farhat Kamal Pasha, said the employees of the CDA had again proved that they had complete confidence in him.
He said his group was not only backed by the ruling PML-Q but also the Muttahida Majlis-i Amal (MMA).
Mr Pasha appreciated the arrangements made by the NIRC for conducting smooth and transparent referendum.
He contested the referendum from a special quota allocated to the retired employees of the CDA as he had been dismissed from service some years ago.
He said that after becoming notified Collective Bargaining Agent (CBA) in the authority, his union would first oppose new the recruitment policy introduced by the interior ministry and move the court in this regard.
The interior minister, he added, had formed new education criteria for the CDA under which merit of new appointment had been made tougher.
The secretary-general CDA Mazdoor Union, Chaudhry Yasin alleged some rigging in the referendum, saying that some fake votes were cast.
“Some of my women voters were asked by the polling staff that their votes had already been cast when they reached at a polling station in the sanitation division,” he said.
He said a gardener of the CDA, identified as Abid, was held by the police when he tried to poll two votes at a time. A case has been registered against him at the secretariat police station.
The chief of CDA Employees’ Federation, Iqbal Dogar, who was reportedly backed by the PPP, said as he was supported by an opposition party, people thought his group would have no say in decision-making in the CDA and at the government level.
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