PFF bans 20 PFA members for life

KARACHI: In a major development, Pakistan Football Federation’s (PFF) disciplinary committee on Wednesday slapped 20 congress members of former Punjab Football Association (PFA) with life bans for forming a parallel provincial body.
“The PFF disciplinary committee during its meeting held on May 24, 2015, has imposed life ban on the following ex-Punjab Football Association’s (PFA) Congress members after having found them guilty of violation of article 70 of the PFF statutes by forming a parallel body of PFA on April 17, 2015,” a PFF press release said.
“Consequently, the PFF disciplinary committee has declared the banned persons ‘persona non grata’ and debarred them for life from taking part directly or indirectly in any sort of football related activity of the PFF or its affiliated units,” it added.
The banned members are Ashraf Khan, Nadeem Ahmed, Haji Mian Muhammad Ashraf, Chaudhry Azhar Ahmed, Javed Ghani, Irfan Maqsood Malik, Anees Ahmed Khan Lodhi, Malik Tariq Rasheed, Muhammad Shafiq Ahmed Naveed, Mehmood Mustafa, Chaudhry Rasheed, Rana Zia-ur-Rehman, Rana Akram Mubarak, Arshad Khan Lodhi (former president), Mehmood Khalid Chaudhry (former secretary), Muhammad Ikhlaq, Faqir Muhammad, Muhammad Naeem, Safdar Shehzad and Falak Sher Babar.
All these — of various districts of Punjab — were informed of the decision through letters on June 9, a copy of which is available with ‘The News’.
A source in the PFF claimed that on April 17 Arshad Lodhi group had informed PFF through a letter about the body they had formed and notified. The source said the case was referred to the PFF disciplinary committee headed by former Balochistan Football Association (BFA) president Jan Mohammad Marri. All the people who have been banned were issued letters in order to record their statements within 15 days, the PFF source added.
The source said that after the process the committee decided to impose life bans on them, having found them guilty of violating the PFF statutes.
PFA former secretary Mehmood Khalid rejected the decision of the PFF. “It’s a drama. How many letters will the PFF release against us! If FIFA came to know about such letters it will not accept them,” Khalid told ‘The News’ from Islamabad.
“These are mad people. They don’t know the laws. They don’t know the meaning of a parallel body. A parallel body is that which is not in majority. We are in the majority; how can they say that we have formed a parallel body?” Khalid added.
He also rejected the PFF claim that they had given the federation a letter on April 17 about the formation of the body. “We have not given the PFF any letter. They themselves write the letters and put fake signs of ours,” Khalid alleged.
He requested the PFF chief Faisal Saleh Hayat to resign before the PFF elections. “We request Faisal to resign before June 30. If he does not do so we will protest against him. We will accept only the policy of the PFF and not that of an individual,” Khalid said.
This correspondent tried to contact Faisal but he did not respond to the calls.
Following a controversial April 17 PFA elections, PFF issued a notification on April 18 and declared Sardar Naved Haider as new PFA president. The Arshad Lodhi group challenged it in Lahore High Court (LHC), which asked Sports Board Punjab (SBP) to probe the issue.
The Board, as directed, recorded the statements of the Arshad Lodhi group. The other group did not respond as it was of the view that the SBP was not entitled to handle the issue.
On May 13, the Arshad Lodhi group held elections in which Rana Ashraf was elected as PFA president and Mehmood Khalid as secretary.
The SBP submitted the election result with the LHC. The PFF went for intra-court appeal against the elections which according to sources was rejected.
The PFF filed another appeal in the same court. Its second hearing will be held on June 15.