KARACHI: K-Electric has asked Pakistan’s boxing coach Ali Bakhsh Baloch to either report for work or tender resignation, ‘The News’ has reliably learnt.
Ali Bakhsh has been associated with Pakistan’s boxing squad for a long time. He has been supervising national training camp, carrying 40 boxers, here at the PSB Coaching Centre in connection with the preparations for the Olympic qualifiers.
Sources said that a top K-Electric official had categorically told Ali Bakhsh a couple of weeks back to either report for work or face early retirement. The company has already withheld his promotion.
Sources said that Ali Bakhsh has been serving K-Electric for 29 years. “He has only one-a-half-year service left,” a source said.
Sources close to the coach said if K-Electric did not allow Ali Bakhsh to continue coaching he was likely to join his service from February 1.
He has been serving in the security wing of the company at its Haroonabad Centre.
The former Asian gold medallist was Pakistan’s coach when the country’s star boxer Mohammad Waseem won silver medal in the last year’s Glasgow Commonwealth Games and bronze in the Incheon Asian Games.
This was after 12 years that a Pakistani boxer won bronze in the Asiad.
A sports official of K-Electric told this correspondent that Ali Bakhsh’s case was complicated.
“For the last few years he has been constantly associated with coaching and has not served the company. I think he will have to retire now,” the official said.
Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) condemned K-Electric for forcing the coach to join duty. “I am striving to meet the top officials of K-Electric and I hope the company will not disturb our coach,” PBF secretary Iqbal Hussain told this correspondent.
He also requested the federal government to take notice of the issue. “I request the federal minister for inter-provincial coordination (IPC)
and the federal minister for water and power to help Pakistan’s boxing and safeguard the basic rights of our highly experienced coach Ali Bakhsh,” Iqbal said.
“He has made immense contribution to Pakistan’s boxing as a player in the past and as coach now. We have given him the responsibility to prepare the lot for the Olympic qualifiers. How can we lose him at a stage when our boxers are going to appear in the world championship in October,” Iqbal said.
“We should determine whether Ali Bakhsh’s services are required more by K-Electric or Pakistan. I think it’s Pakistan which needs his services,” Iqbal said.
Ali won gold medal in the 1982 Delhi Asian Games. He secured gold medals in the Asian Boxing Championship in Mumbai in 1980, in the President’s Cup in Jakarta in 1979 and in the RCD Cup in Iran in 1977.
He also won silver medals in an invitational tournament in Romania in 1977 and in an international event in Athens.
Ali, who retired from international boxing in 1984, remained undefeated in the light flyweight for 14 years at the domestic level.
He has been coaching since 1986. He coached Olympians Hussain Shah, Sohail Baloch and Rasheed Baloch.