KARACHI: Businessmen Group (BMG), which is being led by Siraj Kassam Teli, concluded its aggressive election campaign last night with a historic congregation held at Union Club which remained completely overcrowded with more than 4,000 general body members of Karachi Chamber who assured to fully support all 15 BMG candidates in KCCI’s Annual Election 2018-19 scheduled to be held on Saturday, 15th September 2018.
Besides general body members, the historic congregation was well attended by office bearers, managing committee members and representatives of many commercial markets’ associations and other trade bodies who widely acknowledged the matchless contribution of Chairman BMG & Former President KCCI Siraj Kassam Teli for his selfless contribution and never-ending battle for the rights and wellbeing of not just business & industrial community but also the citizens of Karachi without any discrimination of cast, color or creed.
Speaking on the occasion, Chairman BMG & Former President KCCI Siraj Kassam Teli expressed gratitude to all General Body Members of KCCI, business & industrial community, small traders and Karachiites for their overwhelming participation in BMG’s congregation and thanked them for their constant support to BMG since its inception.
He recalled that BMG has been participating in KCCI’s election since 1998 and so far, 20 elections have been constantly won by BMGIANs, of which the last 11 elections were won unopposed because of the overwhelming support extended by majority of the business and industrial community.
Rejecting all allegations leveled against BMG, he said that there has never been any obstacle in the process of staging elections at KCCI, which were notified every year but as nobody came forward to contest during the last 11 years, all BMG candidates were declared elected unopposed as the business and industrial community is well aware of BMG’s services and its policy in which the Office Bearers are advised to remain active 24/7 and any Karachiite climbing Chamber’s stairs for assistance is fully supported in getting his issue resolved under BMG’s clear policy of ‘Public Service’. “80 to 90 percent of such issues usually get resolved on KCCI’s intervention. Whatever we did, we did it for the citizens of Karachi and you will not find a single person who remained unheard at KCCI”, he added.
He further pointed out that during the last 20 years, KCCI has been making persistent efforts for Karachi city. In this regard, the Chamber raised strong voice to resolve the issue of law and order in Karachi and we were the first to demand army’s operation back in 2013 which can also be confirmed by reviewing numerous media reports published during those days. He further informed that because of KCCI’s lead role and tireless efforts in response to the Boulton Market incident, all 1752 affectees of the incident were fully compensated as per their aspirations whereas KCCI also responded positively and ensured compensation to the affectees of Timber Market fire incident and the Shershah incident in which 14 traders were murdered. “It was due to KCCI’s strong voice that the then government took serious notice of Shershah incident and ensured safety and security to traders”, he added.
Siraj Teli further commented, “Election being staged at KCCI this year is a healthy sign and competition must take place as we live in a democratic era but that doesn’t mean that the opponents should get personal, raise baseless allegations and give negative remarks. It is an election of business community but unfortunately our opponents and their supporters, who recently faced defeat in the national politics, were carrying out politics of allegations in KCCI’s elections which won’t work and the business community would straightaway reject all of them.
Criticizing the opponent party’s misleading ‘Change’ slogan, he said, “What change do they want to see at KCCI which is an institution where modern technologies have been introduced, Research Department was performing exceptionally well which simply cannot be compared with any other Chamber of the country and everything was going on perfectly well. Moreover, the opposition simply cannot prove corruption of a single rupee either by Siraj Teli or by any other BMGIAN during the last 20 years.
“The term Tabdeeli (Change) was introduced by Imran Khan against the corruption of PML-N government, which has become a trend nowadays but it simply cannot be misused for winning KCCI’s election where all activities and operations are being carried out in a transparent manner. In my opinion, they just don’t like my face and want to change it and that’s it, which will not be acceptable to the entire business and industrial community as they know who I am and what is my contribution for the well-being of business community”, he added.
“We will not let them escape and they will face embarrassing defeat. Supporters behind our opponents have finally surfaced as we continued to point them out in our speeches otherwise they would have stayed behind and immediately disclaimed our opponents in case they are defeated and in case they win, these supporters had plans to come forward to claim victory”, Siraj Teli said, “If they have any personal enmity with me then instead of supporting candidates from behind, they should come at front and contest directly. They are not concerned about the issues of business community, they just want to somehow get inside the Chamber so that they could have a platform to seek personal favors from the government.”
Vice Chairmen BMG Zubair Motiwala, Haroon Farooki, Anjum Nisar, President KCCI Muffasar Atta Malik, Former Presidents AQ Khalil and Majyd Aziz, Chairman Businessmen Panel (BMP) Mian Anjum Nisar, BMP representatives Mian Zahid Hussain and Zakaria Usman along with representatives of small traders from various markets including Rafiq Jadoon, Saleem Memon, Hammad Ponawala, Hakeem Shah and Javed Ahmed Sheikh also spoke on the occasion.