HYDERABAD, Oct 1: The district administration got premises of Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI) vacated from its members to avoid any breach of peace here on Monday, after two rival groups of HCCI had come to wrest control of the chamber in the wake of stayed elections.
One person was found armed and handed over to police after he was disarmed by the in-charge district intelligence bureau and Deputy Commissioner of Hyderabad Agha Shahnawaz personally outside chamber president’s office.
Chamber’s main door and that of HCCI president’s office were locked in the presence of the DC. A paper inscribed with “sealed” was pasted on the president office. Witnesses said that members of the two groups had almost come to blows with the result that panes of the office were smashed.
An official of the district administration, Abid Saleem, told Dawn later that the HCCI had not been sealed officially. “Premises of the chamber just got vacated to have an amicable solution to the controversy and that too with the consent of two sides,” Mr Saleem said, adding that the administration apprehended confrontation that’s why this strategy was devised.
Situation in the HCCI became serious when eight members of the present executive committee belonging to Haji Yaqoob Memon and Amin Khatri led Businessmen Panel and Tajir Dost Panel’s held its meeting.
The committee claims to have got Nadeem Siddiqui elected as convener to run day-to-day affairs of the chamber as per advice of their counsel.
On the other hand, Seth Goharullah also claims to be HCCI president. “It is an illegal meeting and an attempt to take over the chamber,” he said as he was sitting with his associates Ziauddin, Turab Khawaja and others.
He told a press conference that until elections were held, he continued to be president of the chamber as per clause 177 of Companies Ordinance 1984 under which chamber is registered.
“Executive committee meeting can’t be convened unless requisitioned by the president or secretary of the chamber but neither of them has issued any such directive,” he said.
Mr Ziauddin contended that the rivals had approached high court which had fixed Oct 12 as next date of hearing. So, he said, there was no justification to take over the chamber. He said that other group was trying to occupy HCCI.
Masood Pervez of rival group rejected the claim. “A similar situation was seen in 1994 when executive members got their convener elected and president was not allowed to work because he had completed his term. Now again Goharullah has completed his term, but the chamber has to be run through a convener,” he added. He said Goharullah was not member of executive committee now and senior vice-president Turab Khawaja and vice-president Saleemuddin Arain had also completed their term.
Nadeem Siddiqui was elected as convener by eight sitting members of the executive committee out of the 12. “We have held our first meeting after I was elected as convener. We had gone to the office of chamber’s president to take over the charge and we did in the presence of the DC,” Mr Siddiqui argued.
The executive committee was attended by Nadeem Siddiqui, Akram Arain, Moiz Abbas, Pahlaj Rai, Mohammad Arif, Moazam, Umar Hayyat and Mukhtar Saeed.
HCCI’s annual elections scheduled for Sept 22 were stayed on Sept 20 by Sindh High Court principal seat after four members, including two contesting candidates belonging to Seth Gohar’s group, filed a suit in the court, questioning voters lists of corporate and associate classes.
“It is quite interesting that the plaintiffs not only belong to Seth Gohar’s group but they are contesting candidates as well and they have filed the suit after going through the whole election schedule,” he said. He said they were themselves plaintiffs and defendants at the same time which was very rare.