Friends win most seats in Puta elections

PESHAWAR: After a tough contest, the majority of the candidates of the strong Friends group emerged victorious in the election for Peshawar University Teachers Association (PUTA), which was held here on Wednesday.

The elections were held in a peaceful manner. Nearly 500 out of the total 590 members of the association turned up to cast their votes. Excellent arrangements had been made at the Teachers Community Center (TCC) where the balloting took place.

The two panels – Friends and Intellectuals – had fielded candidates for all the 14 offices and a neck and neck contest was observed on almost all the seats.

According to results, Dr Mohammad Uzair of Friends Group secured 261 ballots against the 210 of Arif Khan of Intellectual Group and was declared victorious for the presidential slot. The office of vice-president, general secretary and joint secretary went to the intellectual group with a very narrow margin as its candidate Sajjad Ahmad Jan, Suleman Khan and Ali Imran Bangash got 232, 231 and 229 votes against their rivals Dr Darvish Khan, Mohammad Farooq and Mohammad Naeem Butt, who bagged 227, 231 and 228 votes, respectively.

Similarly, the offices of finance secretary, literary secretary, sports secretary and media secretary were won by the Friends by a big margin. Dr Mohammad Amin was chosen as finance secretary by obtaining 242 ballots against the 216 votes of his rival Fazle Khuda.

Syed Owais was elected as literary secretary. He secured 248 votes while his competitor Mohammad Iqbal bagged 205 votes. Moreover, Israel got 242 votes and was elected as sports secretary, while his rival Syed Basit Rasheed secured 213 votes.

Similarly, Zafar Khan of the Department of Sociology representing the Friends group was elected as media secretary with a big margin. He got 254 votes against the 197 of his rival Mohammad Ilyas.

Three out of the four executives’ members were elected from the Friends, while one of the seats went to the Intellectuals. Dr Basharat secured 255 votes, Dr Noor Sanauddin 248 and Anwarul Haq 242 votes.

Dr Syed Hussain Shaheed Soherwordy, chairman Department of International Relations and representative of Intellectual group, got 234 ballots and was chosen as member of the executive committee. Similarly, for the office of women member of the executive committee, Dr Amina Rahat of Friends Group got elected with 253 votes and for vice-president (women), Mahroyan got 238 votes against the 218 of her rival Dr Faiza Tauqir and was elected for the office.