No bar to run FBCCI polls process

The Supreme Court today allowed the authorities concerned to continue the process for holding the FBCCI election until further order.

Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain passed the order following a petition filed by the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) seeking stay on the High Court order that halted the election process for two months.

The chamber judge also sent the FBCCI petition to the full-bench of the Appellate Division for its hearing on March 27.

FBCCI lawyer Barrister Imtiaz Moinul Islam told The Daily Star that there is no legal bar for continuing the election process for the FBCCI following the apex court chamber judge’s order.

The High Court yesterday stayed for two months the process of holding the election of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

As per rules, a director is supposed to be nominated from the Mymensingh division but the nomination was not present in the apex trade body's voter list, Shamim, who is also an elected director of the FBCCI, claimed in the petition.

The FBCCI election was scheduled to be held on May 14, petitioner's counsel Barrister Bodruddoza Badal told The Daily Star yesterday.

Citing the petition, the lawyer said the commerce ministry is required to publish a gazette notification in respect to the nomination of directors from the divisional chambers of commerce and industries under the Trade Organisation Ordinance, 1981.

But, Mymensingh Chamber of Commerce and Industries has been left out of the list in the gazette, although Mymensingh has been declared a division in 2015, he said.

Barrister Bodruddoza said the president of the Mymensingh chamber applied to the commerce secretary in March last year to include his name in the gazette notification as a nominated director of the FBCCI. His name is yet to be included.