PFF NC likely to complete electoral process before Dec 15

LAHORE: Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Normalisation Committee is expected to complete the electoral process of the federation well before the expiry of its mandate which is December 15, 2024.

In the third phase of the districts electoral process elections were held in 30 districts: 14 districts in Balochistan, eight in Gilgit Baltistan, two in Punjab and six in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to well-placed sources the results of 25 districts in the third and final phase have been compiled while there are some minor issues in five districts and those would be resolved in one or two days.

Sources were confident that the results of the elections in these 30 districts will be announced soon. It means that the district elections process has almost been completed.

Sources said that in 137 districts elections were held while there are court stay orders in Tank and Kohat districts. In the next phase provincial elections will be conducted. Sources said that before going towards the provincial elections, electoral rules and regulations will be made before announcing the schedule of the electoral process for the federating units.

Sources said that NC is committed to complete the electoral process at the provincial level by the first week of August. Sources said that NC is expected to hold the PFF elections in October which will help the committee to get ample time before transferring powers to the newly-elected body.

Sources said that the electoral process at the district level was smooth and no major issue was confronted by the NC and the committee hopes that in the next steps elections at the provincial and PFF level will also be a smooth affair.

Sources said that NC may take some time before handing over powers to the newly-elected PFF after the PFF elections. “Definitely there are several matters like accounts and other things and we would like to take some time after the PFF elections so that everything could be smoothly and completely handed over to the newly-elected PFF,” a source said.

This correspondent understands that NC’s disciplinary committee is also handling cases of a handful of important personalities. There are various charges against these stakeholders and its ultimate outcome may leave an impact on their legitimacy to contest the elections at the provincial and the PFF level.

Sources said that in the adjudication of these cases FIFA and the AFC may also play a major role. Following years of unrest due to internal rift, FIFA installed Normalisation Committee in September 2019 under Hamza Khan as its chairman with the task to hold the PFF elections within nine months.

However, the committee failed to do anything noteworthy towards the electoral process. The committee was then reconstituted by FIFA in January 2021 with Canada-based Haroon Malik as its chairman with Shahid Niaz Khokhar, Saud Hashimi and Haris Azmat as its members.