KARACHI, Nov 22: The Fishermen Cooperative Society is still without a chairman as the high-ups in the Sindh coalition are yet to take a decision on the future leadership of the society , which plays a key role in the management of the seafood business.

Differences had cropped up between the two major coalition partners on the nomination of the FCS chairman after the August 4 election of seven directors who represent fishermen communities.

It is reliably learnt that the chief minister's adviser, who is presently holding the charge the Karachi Fish Harbour Authority (KFHA) chairman, is keenly desirous of the top FCS post. However, a group of the government-nominated directors, representing one of the two major coalition partners in Sindh, has been openly opposing his nomination and has since started lobbying against him.

It is further learnt that this group of directors has succeeded in inflicting a dent in the cohesion of its counterpart in the board, the group of seven elected directors.

Sources said that differences among the nominated directors had been causing embarrassment to the government which could not afford discord within the coalition partners in the government.

The sources pointed out that it might perhaps be the reason why the government had failed in taking a decision despite passage of several months. Meanwhile, fishermen communities are worried over the inordinate delay in the election of an FCS chairman as they have been facing lot of problems in getting their day-to-day problems solved.

According to by-laws of the society, FCS is manned by a 15-member board of directors seven of whom are elected by fishermen and the rest are nominated by the government.

An FCS chairman always comes from the group of nominated directors because of their majority in the board. But it is in practice that a vice-chairman always comes from the other group.

Following nomination of the eight directors by the government, the seven representative directors were elected and the whole process was completed by August 4 this year.

Accordingly, a meeting of the new board of directors was scheduled for August 10 to elect chairman and vice-chairman. Mr Shujaat Ali Qarni was tipped as the new chairman as most of the directors appeared favouring his election. However, the meeting had been postponed and election could not be held.

In the meantime, the government issued an amended list of its nominated directors which showed replacement of two directors. Stalemate continues as the crucial meeting of the board has not been called as yet.