Pakistan once again failed to qualify for Olympics in boxing when all the five pugilists fielded in the world qualifying round in Baku were eliminated in the preliminaries. Pakistan had failed to make it to 2008 and 2012 Olympics as well.
Not a single boxer could win any bout in the entire event in Azerbaijan. This has left a serious question mark on the future of Pakistan’s boxing.
But the positive thing is that all boxers played for full three rounds which shows that the potential is there but there is need to polish the talent.
Syed Mohammad Asif (52kg), Niamatullah (56kg), Ali Ahmed (60kg), Tanveer Ahmed (75kg) and Awais Ali Khan (81kg) tried their luck in Baku in which leading boxers from around the world converged to fight for 39 Olympic seats.
Pakistan initially wanted to field seven boxers but US-based Umar Cheema (64kg) failed to proceed with the side to Baku because of an illness, while Amir Khan (69kg) failed to provide his passport to the authorities for Azerbaijan visa.
The actual issue of Amir was that he did not want to take part in the qualifiers as he is set to leave for Mexico for some training which may provide him with an opportunity to turn professional.
Because of no future in amateur boxing in Pakistan talented pugilists have started thinking about professional boxing which is also being encouraged these days by AIBA. In a landmark decision in its extraordinary congress in Lausanne on June 1, AIBA amended its article 13 (J) of its statutes with an overwhelming majority that allowed pros to feature in Olympics.
Pros from around the world will compete for 26 Rio Olympics seats next month in Venezuela.
The PBF took a wrong decision when it dropped senior coach Ali Bakhsh, who had trained boxers for around three years constantly.
Former Olympian Arshad Hussain served as head coach at the camp in Islamabad. Arshad and former international Nisar Khan had to train 20 boxers in the camp, a gigantic task for the duo.
No foreign tour was provided to the pugilists because of financial problems. The strained relations between the PBF and the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) affected the preparation of the pugilists in the qualifiers.
Pakistan missed the Asian qualifying round for Olympics held in the Chinese city of Qiana’n in March and April this year because of the financial problems. The PSB did not help the PBF as the latter had not implemented national sports policy.
After Pakistani boxers were denied China’s tour, the PBF executive committee decided to restore working relations with the PSB by implementing national sports policy, especially incorporating the tenure-restriction clause in its constitution.
The PBF sent a copy of the amended constitution to the PSB and the Board replied that the general body had the authority to make such an amendment.
A top PSB official told me before Pakistan squad’s departure for Baku that there was no PBF and the Board was sending the boxers to Baku to fulfill its national obligation.
The Board had given the PBF Rs30 million to prepare for the 2012 London Olympics qualifiers but for the 2016 Rio Olympics qualifiers the federation was not given even a single penny.
Writing about Pakistan’s boxing it would not be fair not to recall the era of Professor Anwar Chowdhry whose sixth death anniversary passed with complete silence on June 21.
In Chowdhry’s reign as PBF president Pakistani boxers were enjoying international reputation because of their solid performances, particularly at the Asian level. It was in his era that Hussain Shah won bronze medal in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the only medal which the country has secured in Olympics in boxing.
But his successors Doda Khan Bhutto and Mohammad Akram Khan failed to handle the sport successfully.
When national boxers failed to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics after extending pathetic performance in the Asian qualifying round in Astana in March-April 2012 both the PBF chief Doda and the then secretary general Akram started leveling allegations of corruption and human smuggling against each other.
In December 2012 Doda along with his new secretary Iqbal Hussain announced their new body after elections in Lahore. Their rival group led by Akram claimed that no elections had been held.
But they got recognition from AIBA, which left Akram and his company utterly disappointed. Akram, who supported Major General Akram Sahi when the government was at loggerheads with the Arif Hasan-led Pakistan Olympic Association, is still in the good books of Pakistan Sports Board (PSB).
Both Doda-Akram and Doda-Iqbal regimes failed to consolidate the country’s boxing. In the last two years of Doda-Iqbal reign boxing suffered severely. Although Doda never missed any chance of a foreign trip he did not take care of boxers.
Iqbal was seen looking after the pugilists. In 2012 it was decided in the PBF general council meeting that because of differences between Doda and Akram no financial and administrative decisions would be taken by Doda without the concurrent approval of the then Executive Vice-President of the PBF Waqar Maroof. But Doda did not respect that decision of the house, which forced Waqar to sever ties with the sport he had served all his life.
The entire boxing fraternity, the PSB and the POA have set their eyes on the PBF’s next elections.
British boxer Amir Khan’s father Shajjad Khan has also started taking interest in Pakistan’s boxing politics. Amir has already launched an academy in Islamabad which will make him a stakeholder in Pakistan’s boxing.
Bringing those already tested would not get boxing out of the crisis. The PBF needs a boss who is influential enough to bring sponsors and get hefty special grants from the government which the sport needs direly at this stage.
Doda will not be able to get himself elected as he has already served as PBF chief for two tenures.
There is no nursery as the standard in the provinces has touched the lowest ebb. The PBF had to face deep trouble in finding a boxer in 64 kilogramme. In other weight categories too there is no healthy competition which shows how the sport has been ruined. It’s time for boxing fraternity to put their heads together and find solutions of the problems.