Ministry suspends DDG of sports board

ISLAMABAD: Mohammad Shahid Islam, Deputy Director General Pakistan Sports Board (PSB), has been suspended for misguiding high-ups on the credentials of one of kabaddi players, who never was of any worth even for the national team, what to talk about his achievements.

The suspension letter was issued on March 19 on the direct orders of the high-ups with the Ministry for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) issuing the notification. “Secretary IPC is pleased to place Muhammad Shahid Director General PSB Islamabad under suspension with immediate effect for a period of three months,” the notification says.

All the efforts to contact Shahid Islam went fruitless. Even a message to him on WhatsApp which he saw and read but did not reply. Well informed sources told ‘The News’ that Intelligence Bureau (IB) was directed to dig out the truth after Pakistan Kabbadi Federation (PKF) refused to acknowledge Heera Butt as a national player.

“He has never represented the country internationally. When we came to know that his name was forwarded for the medal, we sent a letter to the PSB almost five months back, requesting them not to consider his name as he has not got genuine credentials. Since he never represented the country it would not be appropriate to recommend such a player.

Our request fell on deaf ears. When we came to know that his name was approved, we took up the matter with the high-ups resulting in Shahid Islam’s suspension,” a PKF official said. It is worth mentioning here that Shahid Islam promotion to the post of DDG is also questionable as the matter is pending with the Islamabad High Court. Shahid was demoted by a single bench in 2020. He later went into appeal.

A couple of days back, the Islamabad High court ordered the Director HR PSB to appear in the next hearing. A division bench comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Sardar Ijaz Ishaq Khan heard the intra-court appeal. At the outset of hearing, the court expressed its displeasure over the lack of preparation in the case by the petitioner’s lawyer. The court inquired whether the petitioner was still in service, to which the lawyer said he was still holding the post of Deputy Director General in the Pakistan Sports Board. Justice Kayani remarked that the court had given a decision in this regard in 2020, and “now we are hearing the intra-court appeal against it”.