Islamia College’s senior alumni association elects office-bearers
PESHAWAR: 26 november: Muhammad Zaman Khan Muhammadzai edged out poet-politician Hashim Babar by one vote in a hotly contested election to become the President of the Senior Alumni Association of the Islamia College here Saturday.
He polled 156 votes against 155 obtained by Hashim Babar, who has penned four books of Pashto poetry and is presently associated with the Qaumi Watan Party.
Muhammad Zaman Muhammadzai, an elderly, bearded man who said his love for his alma mater, Islamia College Peshawar, made him work for the historic institution and its students, led his panel to victory as he and three of his panelists won contest for different offices. The only candidate to lose from his panel was Engineer Aurangzeb Khalil, who received 150 votes for the post of joint secretary and lost to Muhammad Tariq Iqbal, who got 156 votes.
One of his panelists, Professor Farmanuddin Bakhshali, won the contest for vice-president by securing 176 votes. His rival Yousaf Tahir Kheli obtained 130 votes.
The contest for the office of secretary general was also close. Fayyaz Khan Muhammadzai emerged victorious with 167 votes while his opponent Lt Col (R) Jamil Ahmad obtained 143 votes.
Prof Dr Abaseen Yousafzai, a well-known Pashto poet and scholar, won a one-sided contest for the office of information secretary. He got 182 votes, the highest by any candidate, to defeat Fazli Qadeem, who polled 125 votes.
As many as 311 votes were polled at the Roose-Keppell Hall of Islamia College. The three-member election committee headed by senior Islamian, Amir Nawaz Khan, supervised the polls. Its other two members were Col (R) Arshad Durrani and Hakeem Khan.
A number of Islamians said they had never seen so much enthusiasm in the election of the Senior Alumni Association. They said in the past, office-bearers of the Senior Alumni Association of the Islamia College were generally elected through nominations. They said the incumbent president and secretary general of the association had been holding their positions for six and 13 years, respectively.
“This was a truly democratic process. The candidates went door-to-door and used the social media to run their election campaign. They got Islamians fully involved in the election,” remarked Col (R) Arshad Durrani.
The winning candidates celebrated their victory.
Earlier, the 16th Annual General Meeting of the association was held with its President Lt Gen (R) Ali Muhammad Jan Aurakzai in the chair. Ajmal Khan, a former vice-chancellor of Islamia College University, was the chief guest on the occasion. The university’s present vice-chancellor, Dr Habib Ahmad, was also present. They also spoke on the occasion.
Senior journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai delivered the keynote address on the status and role of the media in Pakistan.
The association’s outgoing secretary general Lt Col (R) Jamil Ahmad presented the annual report and highlighted its achievements and challenges facing it. In particular, he stressed the need for greater efforts to retrieve the property of the Islamia College at the Qissa Khwani bazaar in Peshawar, Charsadda bazaar, Harichand in Charsadda district and also at the University of Peshawar campus.
The four main candidates for the president and secretary general of the Senior Alumni Association made speeches and presented their programme as they sought votes in the election. While Muhammad Zaman Muhammadzai recounted his past services for the association and Islamia College, his rival Hashim Babar reminded that he was elected president of the Khyber Union, the students’ body of Islamia College, in 1961-62 and was ready to serve the institution again if elected president of the Senior Alumni Association. He promised to use his political contacts to retrieve Islamia College’s properties and increase the number of scholarships for students.
