PESHAWAR, Nov 29: The Progressive Businessmen Forum (PBF) won all the four executive committee seats of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry after a tough competition on Thursday.

According to results announced by the SCCI election and scrutiny committee Maqsood Anwar got 185 votes, Ahsan Rashid 176, Muhammad Ishaq 170 and Malak Muhammad Iftikhar Awan of the forum grabbed 179 votes and remained successful.

The candidates of the rival group - Businessmen Panel - gave a tough time to their opponents and lost with a narrow margin. Its candidates Dr Muhammad Saeed got 138 votes, Nauman Wazir 153, Malak Niaz Muhammad 124 and Khalid Sultan Khawaja secured 160 votes.

Polling for the SCCI executive committee seats was held from 8:30 to 3:30 pm and out of total 363 members, 326 cast their votes.

This was the first ever election of the SCCI during the last three years because the Businessmen Panel, headed by former FPCCI vice-president Faiz Rasul Khan had been boycotting the process.

After the election the 21-member executive committee of the SCCI will elect the president, senior vice-president and vice-president on December 10.

The newly elected members will assume charge of their office on December 31.