November 16, 2008	Sunday	Ziqa'ad 17, 1429

KARACHI, Nov 15: The Fishermen Cooperative Society has planned to hold elections of its board of directors for which spadework has already started though officially the process will begin on November 25 with the publication of a public notice to update electoral rolls.

In the 15-member board of directors, seven members of the society will be elected while rest of the directors will be nominated by the government, according to the FCS bylaws.

After the elections of directors, the board will elect a chairman and vice-chairman who will look after the management and business of the society. At present, FCS affairs are being looked after by an administrator.

The FCS administrator, Mohammad Jaffar Khawaja, said the ground was being prepared to hold transparent election. In the first phase, he said, registered shareholders of the society would be required to surrender their old cards to get new data-based cards.

Mr Khawaja said the process was expected to continue for two months, adding that a new list would be prepared after scrutiny.

He said copies of the list would be provided to the heads of fishermen communities and prominent figures of the fishermen localities. Thereafter, he said, an election date would be announced some time in February 2009.

The administrator declaring 2009 as the Year of FCS elections told Dawn that polling would be held through secret ballot at seven different points in fishermen villages and city areas.

The areas would be identified later and announced subsequently, he said.

In reply to a question, he said that 11,500 registered shareholders had been enrolled since 1945. The list included those who had expired, he added.

“We want to update the electoral rolls through computing in a transparent way to ensure free and fair elections,” he added.

Committees dissolved

The administrator also announced to dissolve welfare and market committees, saying that he would personally visit fishermen villages and localities to inquire about their welfare and would issue on spot orders.

Mr Khawaja said he would personally look after the affairs of the market to streamline its working and plug leakages.

Any fisherman facing a genuine problem could directly visit his office to get his grievances redressed, he said, announcing that for this purpose he would initiate a drive from Shamspir and other islands.

Talking about the welfare of fishermen, he said that sewing machines would be distributed among the needy families for which he would also contact the MNAs and MPAs of the respective areas.