LAHORE: The Election Commission for the upcoming polling (2019-23) of the College of the Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) Council has issued the final list of 52 candidates amid allegations of `pre-poll rigging` Twenty-two of the medical teachers are contesting from Punjab for 11 slots of council members of the CPSP, 18 from Sindh for six positions, eight from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for four and four candidates are contesting from Balochistan for one seat. The polling is scheduled to be held on Feb 23.

As the polling day is approaching, the demand by the opposition party and other fellows to postpone election is getting stronger `for not providing equal opportunity to all in the electoral process.` The situation worsened when the CPSP allegedly started victimising Prof Dr Mohammad Irfan, the head of the medicine department of the Faisalabad Medical University, an official told Dawn.

He said Dr Irfan had announced that he would participate in the election against the ruling party and submitted his nomination papers. The CPSP secretary immediately ordered disciplinary action against him (Dr Irfan) on the pretext of raising the issue of victimising his sister, Dr NaziaMussarat, professor of gynaecology and obstetrics from Faisalabad.

In his complaint, Dr Irfan alleged that the CPSP replaced his sister by a junior lady doctor just to pressure him to withdraw his nomination for the polls, the official said.

`The CPSP has appointed supervisor of the college a lady doctor who is junior to my sister. It`s height of favouritism and injustice, reads the complaint of Dr Irfan.

In response to his complaint, CPSP Secretary Prof Dr Irshad Waheed ordered the Disciplinary Committee to initiate action against him for making serious allegations and taking up the matter with the college on behalf of his sister.

The official said in case the decision of the committee comes against Dr Irfan, the CPSP as a major punishment could cancel his fellowship and deprive him of his right of practice.

Meanwhile, CPSP vice president Prof Naqib Ullah Achakzai also raised the issue of maneuvering the elections in his recent written complaint to the college. He pointed out violations of the CPSP by-laws which is a question mark on the credibility of the Election Commission and the entire electoral process.

In his complaint, he criticised the CPSP Election Commission for not providing minutes of the last (183rd) council meeting and complete voters list in order to facili-tate some individuals in the upcoming elections.

`How come the recorded minutes of the meeting be approved without being read by the council members,` he said and also questioned formation of the commission and election schedule the very next day of the council meeting. These steps, he said, were a blatant violation of the by-laws.

`This raises the suspicion of manipulating the upcoming election to benefit some individual(s) who had prior knowledge of the situation and had prepared themselves for elections beforehand,` lamented Prof Achakzai.

According to the by-laws, he said, the CPSP is bound to give 15 days to the members to record their comments and observations to make the decisions of the council meeting effective. He regretted that the announcement of the election commission and schedule a day after the council meeting were yet to be received by the members even after the passage of three weel(s or so.

`The announcement of election and its schedule reflects that the minutes of the 183rd Council Meeting (yet to be received by the Council members) have definitely been changed,` the CPSP VCP alleged. He demanded immediate postponement of the election.

`I request you to postpone the CPSP election and circulate the minutes of themeeting of the council, giving sufficient time and equal opportunity to all the fellows to participate in the process,` he demanded.

The CPSP secretary denied the allegation of making changes to the minutes of the meeting and said these would be circulated soon.

Prof Dr Abdul Majeed Chaudhry, retired principal Fatima Jinnah Medical College, Lahore (now university), has also expressed his reservations on the electoral process. He told Dawn that the upcoming CPSP council election had already become `the most controversial election of the history.

Prof Chaudhry who is leading the opposition group has fielded his candidates on all slots. He demanded postponement of the upcoming election and condemned the CPSP for `victimising Dr Irfan.

Denying the allegations, Prof Waheed said the entire electoral process had been kept highly transparent. `The CPSP is a well-reputed institution and he believes in providing opportunity to all the candidates irrespective of the afbliation of the contestants to any group,` he told Dawn.

He claimed that Dr Irfan was twisting the facts.

`We have uploaded complete particulars of the candidates contesting election on the CPSP website to facilitate the voters, he said.