Tight contest expected in Model Town Society polls on 25th

LAHORE: A neck-and-neck contest is expected in the upcoming elections of the Model Town Cooperative Housing Society (MTS) scheduled to be held on Feb 25.

Registered under societies' registration act 1925 around 90 years back, Model Town Society (MTS) is said to be the oldest cooperative society of the provincial metropolis. These days every road of the society is filled with election banners from both groups contesting elections namely as 'The Model Town Group' and 'Friend's Group'.

Representing Model Town Group, Sahibzada Saifur Rehman and Dawood Barry are contesting for President and VP slots whereas Col (Retd) Tahir Kardar and Zill-e-Elahi are the candidates for the slots of President and VP from Friends Group.

Both the groups are holding corner meetings and running door to door campaign in the society. Friend's Group has leveled allegations of corruption in various completed and ongoing development projects executed by the previous management of Sahibzada Saifur Rehman, who declared these allegation political gimmicks of his opponents.

Former presidential candidate Mateen Ahmed Rana who gave a tough time to Sahibzada Saifur Rehman in previous two elections also joined hands with Friends Group after which the group's position in the upcoming election have strengthened a lot.

Mateen Ahmed Rana while talking with The News said that the main question of the opposition group from the former president MTS Saifur Rehman was that he should reveal his source of income and income tax returns for the years during which he remained President of MTS. "Wife of Saifur Rehman and his other relatives owned shops, plots and houses in Model Town worth millions of rupees," he said, adding some members of society have also approached NAB regarding this issue and an inquiry for having assets beyond means is going on in NAB against the former president. Mateen Ahmed Rana also alleged that previous management has included more than 500 defaulters in the voters list and he will provide the details of these defaulters to the media very soon.

Second major allegation of the opposition party was inflated prices of ongoing development projects while full and final payments were also made to various contractors in last months of 2017. Col (Retd) Tahir Kardar, presidential candidate of Friends Group, said that the previous management issued inflated tenders to get kick backs. These projects included construction of national flag, extension and rebuilding of model town hospital, construction of multiplex and club, construction of marquees, construction of roads and many other projects.

On the other hand, Sahibzada Saifur Rehman rejected all these allegations and termed them propaganda campaign by his opponents. He said all tenders were of ongoing and previous projects were given according to the rules and regulations and lowest bidders were selected and awarded work. He said that the allegation of inflated rates of contracts were completely baseless. To questions about properties worth millions of rupees owned by his wife, brother and other family members, he said: "Is this a crime".

"My wife belonged to a billionaire family and have bought property in MTS from her own resources," he said, adding the opposition group was trying to defame him through this propaganda campaign. He also claimed that the NAB had given him a clean chit.