Hasnain Khurshid elected SCCI president unopposed

PESHAWAR: Hasnain Khurshid Ahmad, Imran Khan and Javed Akhtar were on Thursday elected unopposed president, senior vice-president and vice-president of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) for the next one year term.

The announcement was made by the Election Commission during its meeting. Members of the Election Commission, Malik Niaz Ahmad, Abidullah Yousafzai and Haris Mufti were present during the meeting.

According to the election commission, Hussnain Khurshid, Imran Khan and Javed were elected unopposed to the offices as no one had submitted nomination papers against them.

The newly-elected office-bearers of the SCCI will take charge of their office on October 01.

Hasnain Khurshid, Farhad Asfandyar, Muhammad Arshad Siddiqi, Minhajuddin and Pervez Khan Khattak were elected to the SCCI executive committee for Corporate Group on September 20.

Imran Khan Mohmand, Javed Akhtar, Ejaz Khan, Ghulam Hussain and Naeem Qasmi were elected for the Associate Group.

Muhammad Ashfaq was already elected unopposed on a vacant seat of Bannu Township while Mubarak Begum was also elected unopposed on women reserved seat.

They all belonged to the Business Forum which is headed by senior politician and former senator, Ilyas Ahmad Bilour.

A formal announcement of newly-elected presidents and executive members will be made during the SCCI Annual General Meeting which is scheduled to be held on September 30.

Meanwhile, the SCCI in collaboration with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) formally launched a web portal/Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Investment Facilitation Centre (KPIFC).

The KPIFC idea was conceived by SCCI to promote investment and resolve the business community through digitisation under one window operation service.

A formal launching ceremony was held which was chaired by SCCI President Sherbaz Bilour.

The participants thanked the UNDP and USAID for extending financial and technical support in the execution of the KPIFC project.

Provincial ministers Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, Mian Khaliqeer Rehman, Muhammad Atif Khan, Shah Muhammad Khan, MNA Zile Huma, SMEDA provincial chief Rashid Aman, ANP parliamentary leader, Sardar Hussain Babak were in attendance.

SMEDA Chief Executive Officer Hashim Raza and UNDP Deputy Resident Representative Ms Aliona Niculita participated in the ceremony through a video link.

Sherbaz Bilour hoped that the SCCI initiative would play a pivotal role in the resolution of business community and investors issues under one roof.

The provincial ministers hailed the joint initiative by the SCCI and SMEDA for attracting investment in the province.