Journalist Panel sweeps NPC election

ISLAMABAD: Journalist Panel’s Shakeel Anjum has been elected as President National Press Club (NPC) bagging 1,001 votes in Monday’s election.

His closest rival and the outgoing president Shakeel Ahmed Qarar (Azad Group) bagged only 685 votes. The other five candidates also could not get mentionable votes.

Mattiullah Jan was at third place with 158 votes. The Journalist Panel won 10 out of 11 seats of the Executive Body.

The panel lost only one seat of vice president (women). The results of the Executive Body were announced by Chairman Election Committee Asim Qadeer Rana at 8am on Tuesday, while the results of the Governing Body seats are expected to be announced on Wednesday morning.

No untoward incident was reported on the election day. More than 2,000 council members participated in the voting that continued from 8.00am to 7.00pm.

Anwar Raza of Journalist Panel retained his seat as Secretary NPC bagging 1,108 votes. His closest rival Zeghum Naqvi could manage only 644 votes.

The rest of the five candidates failed to touch 100 mark. Similarly, Arshad Waheed Chaudhry (994 votes), Khalil Ahmed Raja (824) and Shahbhi Muhammad (711) of Journalist Panel were elected vice presidents.

Although total contestants on these seats were 20, those who could manage more than 500 votes were Qurban Ali Shah (589 votes), and Salman Qazi (535 votes).

On the seat for Vice-President (women seat) interesting one-to-one battle was witnessed in which Dr. Sadia Kamal of Azad Panel secured 959 votes to defeat her only rival from Journalist Panel Shazia Nayyer who secured 813 votes. Ehtishamul Haq (953 votes), Noshad Abbasi (942) and Muhammad Nadeem Chaudhry (892) also from the Journalist Panel were elected on three seats of Joint Secretary reserved for men.

A total number of 16 candidates contested on these seats but two others Ayaz Akbar Yousafzai (616 votes) and Akram Abid Qureshi (522 votes) could secure more than 500 votes.

Amongst them Ehtishamul Haq will be considered as the senior vice president and is likely to take the charge of the Camp Office of the National Press Club in Rawalpindi as per previous practice.

Shakila Jalil from the Journalist Panel retained her seat of Joint Secretary (women) by securing 817 votes.

The other two contestants Mahwish Fakhar and Fauzia Kalsoom Rana could manage 545 and 512 votes respectively. Meanwhile, Sagheer Ahmed Chaudhry also retained the seat of Finance Secretary with 836 votes.