Amar Singh Club holds Annual General Meeting
Srinagar, Jun 30: Amar Singh Club, Srinagar held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) to discuss various issues for smooth functioning of the club.
In view of the unforeseen engagement of Club President and Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah, the meeting was chaired by Rauf A Punjabi, Managing Committee Member who was appointed to preside over the meeting under Article 30(2) of the Club Constitution.
Nasir Hamid Khan, Secretary of Amar Singh Club, Srinagar in his address to the members conveyed the warms regards and best wishes of the President to participating members.
The proceedings started by observing one minute’s silence in respect of members who had passed away during the intermeeting period, eminent amongst them being Muhammad Shafi Pandit, Devender Singh Rana, Prof Mian Sualeh Mustafa, Er Mohammad Aslam Khan, Mir Mohammed Hussain Kanth and others.
Nasir Hamid Khan briefed the General Body of the Club about various activities undertaken by the Managing Committee over the past few years and gave detailed figures about the steady increase in yearly revenues from Rs 86 lacs in the year 2019-20 to Rs 4.45 Crores in the year 2024-25. He said that the Club had paid an amount of Rs 1.29 Crores as GST and more than doubled the number of Club employees. He said that the Managing Committee invested heavily on creation of new assets and restoration of the existing facilities, investing a substantial amount of incomes towards this head.
Nasir Hamid Khan informed the members that the Managing Committee had initiated a program titled ‘Common Interest Conversations’ for resolving various societal issues of Kashmir and it had been a great success. He stated that issues like Digital Addiction, Drug Abuse, Women Wellness, Eldercare, Unemployment, Architectural Issues and many other issues were being constantly highlighted through these programs. The activity was also attracting a lot of new members to the Club and he shared that recently an applicant G H Kango, an retired IFS officer had applied for membership at the age of 90 years. The Secretary informed the members that Kango had the unique record of being the most aged applicant in the history of the Club and deserved to be appreciated for that. He recommended that the General Body may consider waiving off the one-year probation period for newly admitted members. The General Body appreciated the spirit of Mr G H Kango (IFS) and unanimously approved waiving off the period of probation under Article 10(2) of the Club Constitution.
Audited Club accounts for the year 2023-24 were placed before the General Body which unanimously approved the same.
Resolutions by the Managing Committee were placed before the General Body for amendments to the Club Constitution with regard to the total number of members under Article 8(i), approval of minutes of General Body under Article 40(v) and revision of prescribed admission fee and categories were discussed in detail by members and approved. Nasir Hamid Khan recommended the category of single women to be added to the existing categories on nominal charges as the General Body may deem wise. The recommendation was debated upon and approved. Members who participated in the discussions were Saleem Beig, Er SRS Madni, Er Khursheed Bado, Mohd Ashraf Mir, Danish Aman, Yawar Mustaq Wani and others.
The General Body also appointed M/s Asjad Muhaib & Associates as Club Auditors for the financial year 2024-25.
Under Agenda Item No. VI, the General Body considered business brought up by Club Members for discussions. The issue raised by Bilal Ahmed Dar was regarding the event charges for marriage functions of offspring’s of members where the Club charged fifty percent of the notified rates for the marriage of a son and no charges for the marriage of a daughter. He proposed that Club members belonged to a class who could afford to pay the nominal charges but there were a lot of girls belonging to underprivileged class who needed financial support. He appreciated the Club Managing Committee for providing free banqueting space to the underprivileged families over the years but in his opinion, they required financial handholding for other expenses. He proposed that members be charged fifty percent for marriages of both son’s/daughters and ten percent of all Club income from banqueting be kept as a special corpus fund for supporting the marriage functions of underprivileged girls.
The proposal was debated upon in detail and the General Body approved the same in toto.
Under Agenda Item No. VII, Senior Advocate Jehangir Iqbal Ganie moved a resolution under Article 61, seeking deleting of Article 20(4) of the Club Constitution which barred Managing Committee Members from contesting elections after two consecutive terms. Jehangir Iqbal Ganie argued that the Article was against the inclusive spirit of democracy and restricted the right of voting of members which the constitution gives to them. He argued that there should not be any restriction qua his right of vote. He said that if the members feel that any member of the Managing Committee has done good work they would definitely vote for him but since democracy is the best leveller and someone has not performed well, members are there to show them that they have not worked to the satisfaction of the members, they would not be elected the next time. He stated that putting a restrain, to his understanding, is a restrictive curtailment of one’s right to vote. He requested that subject to further discussions on the resolution, his request to the General Body would be to not only approve this resolution by the required two-third majority but unanimously by all members present as it directly hits our right to vote.
The resolution was discussed in detail by eminent members like Showkat A Zargar, Mustaq A Wani, Shabir Ahmad, Mustaque Ali Khan, Ritu Kapoor, Mustaq Tantray, Owais Qadir Jamie who all supported the resolution. Ritu Kapoor proposed to adopt the resolution which was seconded by Mustaq A Wani and unanimously approved by the General Body.
Rauf A Punjabi thanked all the Club Members for their participation and sharing of views in various discussions which resulted in interesting debates. Nasir Hamid Khan presented the vote of thanks to the Chair.
