PMA Punjab holds polls amid controversy

LAHORE: The office-bearers of Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Punjab, have been elected during elections 2016-2017 on Sunday amidst controversy as 14 out of 18 district branches boycotted the ‘sham elections’ in the province.

Three candidates of president (Elect); Dr Maqsood Zahid, Dr Rai Arif and Dr Abbas Ch; boycotted the elections.The doctors condemned the PMA’s Lahore group led by Dr Izhar Chaudhry holding elections in only 18 district branches out of 36 districts of Punjab, which were further reduced to just four districts as doctors in 14 branches boycotted the alleged fake election. “Only one and two votes have been cast in Faisalabad and Toba Tek Singh respectively even out of these four branches in Punjab,” claimed the doctors.

Meanwhile, the Election Commissioner of PMA, Punjab, claimed to have conducted elections for one seat of president (Elect) and two seats of joint secretaries at nine polling stations in Punjab, including Lahore, Sialkot, Jhelum, Gujrat, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Multan and Bahawalpur. The commission said a large number of doctors cast their votes.

Dr Sahibzada Syed Masood-ul-Syed has been elected president (Elect) with 369 votes by defeating Dr Maqsood Zahid, Dr Rai Arif and Dr Abbas Ch, who got eight, one, one votes respectively.Dr Yasmin Ehsan and Dr Syed Shabbir Akhtar were elected joint secretaries by obtaining 375 and 370 votes respectively and beating Dr Imran Rafique who got nine votes.