PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday suspended recent orders of Trade Organisations director general of denying voting rights to members of two chambers of commerce of Charsadda and allowed them to participate in annual elections of Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI).

The bench of Justice Mohammad Nasir Mahfooz and Justice Syed Arshad Ali issued the orders over two petitions separately filed for restoring voting rights of the members of Charsadda Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) and Charsadda Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CWCCI) to declare the impugned orders issued by the director general of Trade Organisations on Dec 12, 2020, as illegal and unconstitutional.

One of the petitions is jointly filed by secretary general of CCCI and its two members Sikander Khan and Zubair Ali. Similarly, the second petition is filed by Safia Naz and Mehtab Zafar, both members of CWCCI.

Barrister M Yaseen Raza Khan appeared for the petitioners and contended that both CCCI and CWCCI were trade organisations duly registered under the Trade Organisations Act (TOA), 2013 and were also members of FPCCI.

PHC stays order of Trade Organisations director general

He stated that all registered trade organisations around the country were regulated by TOA. He added that section 14 of TOA empowered the Regulator Trade Organisations to exercise control over, manage and conduct the proceedings of any registered trade organisation in the country.

Barrister Yaseen stated that FPCCI held yearly elections, which as per TOA were to be concluded by Dec 31 each year. He said that in relation to the ongoing elections of FPCCI for the year 2021, its secretary general invited nominations from all registered trade bodies from around the country including CCCI and CWCCI.

He stated that the members in the two petitions were nominated by their respective chambers for the elections, but certain candidates raised objections against their nominations. However, the FPCCI turned down the pleas and appeals against the said orders were also rejected by the FPCCI’s election commission. He stated that appeals were filed against those orders before Regulator Trade Organisations (director general) wherein one of the grounds was that licences of the two chambers were earlier cancelled.

He contended that FPCCI had restored licences of both the chambers on the order of the high court.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2020