KARACHI, Feb 9: Forty-six candidates are in the run for the 10th election of 20-member council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan, polling for which is being held on Saturday at Karachi and ten other centres across the country.

A source in the CPSP said that members were elected for 4-year tenure to manage its administrative and academic affairs. Last time elections for the council were held on September 23, 2002.

The total number of registered voters, all fellows of the college, for the election is 4,840, while the province-wise allocation of seats in the council is: Punjab-11, Sindh-6, Balochistan-1 and Frontier-2.

In all 26 candidates are contesting from Punjab, followed by Sindh-15, Balochistan-2 and Frontier-3. Candidates are mainly divided in two groups, Friends of CPSP and Green panel.

A senior fellow of the college, who had the opportunity of getting elected repeatedly, said that as per the trend observed during the last 10-12 years 40 to 50 per cent of the council members were re-elected.

Some of the candidates for the latest election are: Prof Sibtul Hasnain Syed, Prof Farrukh Zaman, Prof Javed Raza Gardezi, Prof M Afzal Khan Niazi, Prof Rakhshanda Rehman, Prof Tahir Masood Khan, Prof Mohammad Jamal, Prof Amer Aziz, Prof Rizwan Choudhri, Prof Ghulam Mujtaba, Prof Mohammad Sultan Farooqui, who is also the sitting president of the CPSP, Prof Syed Mohibur Rab, Prof Masood Hameed Khan, Prof Ghulam Ali Memon, Prof Asadullah Khan, Dr Ghulam Asghar, Dr Attaur Rehman, Prof Tariq Mahmood Khan, Prof Abdullah Jan Jaffer and Prof Ziauur Rehman.

Some of the fellows noted that the elections were going to be a crucial one as there had been an obvious desire for a change in the leadership of the college. Some of the senior doctors said that the new body needed to work independently in order to take some dynamic measures leading to the promotion of postgraduate education and medical science researches and practical activities in line with the present day needs and aspirations of the country.The venues of the CPSP council/ faculties elections (2007-2010) are: Karachi, Hyderabad, Larkana, Quetta, Peshawar, Abbottabad, Bahawalpur, Multan, Lahore and Islamabad.