LAHORE: Canvassing for the Lahore Gymkhana elections 2020 concluded on Thursday night as the two panels -- one led by outgoing chairman Kamran Lashari and the other by Dr Jawad Sajid Khan -- showed their cards to the voters.

Mr Lashari vociferously pleaded his case for being entrusted with the all-important post once again on the basis of “three-year performance” whereas Dr Khan presented his credentials while questioning former chairman’s “dictatorial rule and extravagant spending of members’ funds.”

Around 5,500 permanent club members will use their right to franchise to elect a 12-member Committee of Management (CoM) in the polling scheduled to be held at Gymkhana on Saturday (today) from 10am to 6pm. Five independent candidates are also in the run.

Voters believe that the election will be interesting as three strong candidates (along with their patrons) have parted with Kamran Lashari’s panel and joined Misbah-ur-Rehman panel, alleging that Mr Lashari had backtracked from his commitment.

Former club chairmen Salman Siddique and Fariduddin Ahmed had last time patronised Mr Lashari’s panel and persuaded three strong candidates Prof Dr Jawad Sajid Khan, Dr Ali Razzaque and Ms Samira Maroof Khan to join the panel. There was, however, a commitment that Mr Lashari, upon winning, would serve as chairman for two years and hand over the charge to Dr Jawad Khan for the third year.

Contesting groups go all lengths to win support of voters

Speaking to Dawn, Mr Salman Siddique and Dr Khan said Mr Lashari went back on his commitment and continued serving as chairman and that too in a “dictatorial manner”. “This led us to part with Mr Lashari,” Dr Khan said.

Mr Lashari, however, said Dr Khan was not a team member and could not gel in with the elected team and continued acting as a splinter group. “The executive body advised me not to hand over chairmanship to Dr Khan,” he claimed.

The renamed Dr Jawad/ Misbah panel is accusing the outgoing chairman of unilaterally deciding development work and spending huge money without taking the general body into confidence.

“Mr Lashari spent Rs400 million through his kitchen cabinet on ostentatious works but not a single new facility was added to the club,” Dr Khan alleged in his concluding speech. He demanded forensic audit of the money spent during the last three years.

Dr Khan said the three members who parted ways and Misbahur Rehman and Mian Parvez Bhandara continued demanding that the club funds should be spent judiciously and later on called for forensic audit but all in vain.

Addressing the gathering that included former chairmen of the club, Mr Rehman said all development projects in the past used to go to the annual general meeting for formal approval. He said his panel after winning elections would make the club profitable and subsidise food.

“Mr Lashari in his tenure lost Rs190 million including Rs30 million during July-Dec 2019 period,” he alleged.

Later, Mr Salman Siddique took oath from his panel members that they, after coming into power, would reduce the prices of food and beverages through the best financial management practices and build parking space for 500 cars in a phased manner besides improving all facilities and services.

The Jawad/Misbah panel also committed that it would hold club elections on an annual basis, saying the next elections would be held in February 2021 after approval from the general body.

Mr Lashari urged the voters to acknowledge his team’s sincere work otherwise, people would stop working. “Elect my team as a whole, if you want me in a lead role, and I will take Lahore Gymkhana to another level,” he promised.

He stated that he could give a fresh look to the club while refurbishing every facility with an appeal for aesthetics. He stated that the club’s funds expenditure was audited and presented in the annual general body meeting.

Referring to his development and beautification works in Lahore, Islamabad and now increasing scope in KP and Balochistan, he said, “We are on a path of sprucing up our heritage and institutions.”

Meanwhile, women candidates of Mr Lashari’s panel have also objected to their opponents’ move of “objectifying women” as they share a power-point slide that reads “let the pretty faces and false figures not fool you.”

The Kamran Lashari panel candidates having serial number 1 to 12 are: Kamran Lashari, Khawaja Imran Zubair, Shaukat Javed, Sami ur Rahman ex-DIG, Ahsan Saeed Mian, Mian Javed Zahur, Dr Syed Atif Hasnain Kazmi, Qamar Khan (Bobby), Syed Tayyab Hussain Rizvi, Ms Rabeea Salman, Zil a Ilahi and Prof Dr Col Iffat Batool.

The Dr Jawad/ Misbah panel candidates having serial number 13 to 24 are: Dr Jawad Sajid Khan, Mian Misbah ur Rehman, Dr Ali Razaque, Ms Samira Maroof Khan, Mian Parvez Bhandara, Sarmad Nadeem, Agha Ali Imam, Zahid Nabi Malik, Pervez Bashir Agha, Prof Dr Abdul Majeed Chaudhry, Wajid Aziz Khan and Taimur Azmat Osman.

The five independents having serial number 25 to 29 are: Syed Abid Hussain, Dr Shaukat Ali, Malik Ghulam Sarwar, Muhammad Shams Qaiser and Khalid Saeed.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2020