Special Report
KARACHI: The Officials of the Arts Forum Panel have announced to participate in the elections despite boycotting the Annual General Body Meeting of the Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi despite their all reservations, saying that they are neutral to make the election process transparent. Monitoring of the setup is essential. It is unfortunate that no action has been taken so far against the elements who tortured our female candidate in the General Body Meeting during the last elections. Clear support for a group of Sindh government has come out in the Arts Council elections.
The Arts Forum Panel has announced their candidates: President Najamuddin Sheikh, Vice President Mukhtar Ahmed Butt, Secretary Mubashir Mir, Treasurer Syed Ibn Hassan and Joint Secretary Qandil while addressing a joint Press conference here at Karachi Press Club, Friday.
The officials of Arts Forum also announced the names of their candidates for the governing body, including Naseem Shah Advocate, Dr. Javed Manzar, Dr. Ain Reza, Tahseem-ul-Haq Haqi, Syed Abdul Basit, Naeem Tahir, Mansoor Zubair, Azeem Haider Syed, Asif Maqsood, Vahid Lashari, Naseem Anjum and Yasmeen Chaudhry.
Officials of the Arts Forum said that despite all the reservations, they are participating in the elections of Arts Council Karachi for the sanctity of democratic values. The ruling party has had the full patronage of the Sindh government for the last ten years and its support for a group of administration in the elections is also clear.
They said that they have also approached the Supreme Court for holding transparent elections and hope that a positive decision would be taken in this regard. They said that nepotism has been exacerbated in the Arts Council. Elections are won due to secret membership. They strongly condemned the dictatorial running of a democratic institution.
Keeping in view the unfortunate incidents of the past, the peaceful conduct of the elections on December 20 should be ensured under the supervision of an impartial setup, they said. It was the darkest day in history when under a well thought out plan, extremist group had attacked a respected female member of the Arts Council. Her only guilt was that she had questioned the performance of the group imposed on the Arts Council at the Annual General Body Meeting of the Arts Council. The media had given full coverage to this unfortunate incident.
The management of the meeting behaved in such a way under which it was crystal clear that the management is also a part of this unfortunate game. However, the situation was temporarily brought under control as the management had promised that they would take action against this bullying. However, despite the passage of almost two years, no action has been taken against those who attacked the honorable woman.
They said that in the “given the situation, they have decided to boycott the Annual General Body Meeting this time.”