GUJRAT, Nov 5: Serious differences have cropped up between the incumbent chairman of the Pakistan Electric Fans Manufacturers Association and its election commission members after the rejection of nomination papers of all 24 candidates for 10 executive committee seats from the Gujranwala region.

Sources in the PEFMA said that elections for the total 24 seats of the executive committee, chairman and vice-chairman were scheduled to be held on Nov 17 and the date for the scrutiny of nomination papers was Nov 3.

Election commission members Ghias Paal and Malik Muhammad Safdar had rejected nomination papers of all the 24 candidates of the Gujranwala region as 10 executive committee seats were reserved for the Gujranwala region while the rest for the Gujrat region, both corporate and associate class categories.

The papers of Gujranwala candidates were rejected for being incomplete as per the rules of the new memorandum of the trade organization. The PEFMA has 196 registered members, 116 from the Gujrat region and 80 from the Gujranwala region.

After the rejection of papers of a big number of candidates from the Gujranwala region, PEFMA chairman Haji Muhammad Ilyas in a statement issued here on Wednesday apprehended a split in the ranks of the association.

He alleged that the election commission had violated rules at the behest of a certain group that, according to him, was also involved in violations of rules in the Gujrat Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Mr Ilyas claimed that nomination papers of some candidates of the Gujrat region were also changed after the expiry of the last date.

Refuting the allegation leveled against them, election commission members Ghias Paal and Malik Safdar Hussain said that nomination papers of candidates from the Gujranwala region were rejected as per the rules and regulation.

They claimed that their papers were not only incomplete but they were also filled and signed by one man.

They said the incumbent chairman had violated the rules by sending incomplete list of candidates to the Director Trade Organization in Islamabad for which he was not authorized. The chairman should not have leveled allegations against the election commission because he himself nominated them as its members, they said.

—Waseem Ashraf Butt