Friends Group sweeps PUTA elections

PESHAWAR: The ‘Friends Group’ sweeps the University of Peshawar Teachers Association (PUTA) elections for the seventh consecutive time on Thursday.
Dr Jamil Ahmad Chitrali, director, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies of the University of Peshawar (UoP), was elected as president and Dr Mohammad Iqbal, general secretary of the association.
The elections were held at the Teachers Community Centre (TCC). Prof Dr Niaz Mohammad, chairman, Sociology Department, supervised the process. Up to 560 of the total 634 members of the association exercised the right to vote.
According to results, Jamil Ahmad secured 333 votes against his rival Prof Dr Bushra Hamid, dean, Faculty of Management Sciences, who obtained 212 ballots.
For the general secretary slot, Dr Iqbal got 364 votes against 177 of his rival Dr Shahid Ali. A tough contest was expected for the post of the vice-president. The candidate of the ‘Friends Group’ won the contest by 11 votes.
Dr Mukhtar Ali Durrani obtained 280 votes against the 269 of his rival Dr Yasin Iqbal to become the vice-president of the UoP teachers representative association. Dr Mohammad Ismail became the new finance secretary. He secured 349 votes against 193 of his rival Azizuddin of the Tanzeem-e-Asatiza.
For the office of literary secretary, Dr Noor Sanauddin secured 329 votes against 219 of Zaigham Hassan.
Dr Khan Alam was elected sports secretary by bagging 340 ballots. Mohammad Farooq became the new media secretary of the association. He got 334 votes against the 199 of Dr Zulfiqar Ali of Tanzeem-e-Asatiza.
Dr Anush, Dr Naeem Qazi, Dr Sajjad Ahmad Khan and Dr Zahir Mohammad were elected members of the executive committee of the association. It merits a mention that the ‘Friends Group’ has been leading the UoP teachers for the last seven years.
This year, all its rivals such as ‘Progressive Group’, Tanzeem-e-Asatiza and ‘Azada Group’ preferred to support apparently the ‘Independent’ candidates instead of fielding own nominees. It was done to break the winning record of the ‘Friends’ but the strategy didn’t work.
The newly elected PPUT president has already served against the same position twice in the past. Talking to The News, he thanked the teacher fraternity for reposing confidence in him. He pledged to serve the community to the best of his capacity and ability.
The newly elected president said his team’s top priority this year would be to develop consensus on the Universities Act.
Jamil Chitrali said he would try to hold meetings with the chief minister and other top officials of the provincial government to inform them of the teachers concerns over the new legislation for the public sector universities.