Khalid elected PBF president

KARACHI: Khalid Mehmood and Nasir Ijaz Tung on Thursday were elected as president and secretary, respectively, of the Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) for the next four years.

Both along with the rest of the set-up were elected unopposed at the electoral meeting held at the Greens Hotel at Peshawar.

The outgoing president Doda Khan Bhutto was elected as chairman. The PBF last year had amended its constitution for accommodating Doda, who served PBF for the last eight years. And as per national sports policy he was not eligible to run for the third tenure.

Khalid is also serving as secretary of Pakistan Olympic Association (POA). Nasir Tung belongs to Army. It was expected that the new set-up would contain secretary from Sindh. But after a meeting at the Pearl Continental Hotel Peshawar on Wednesday, the situation changed and Asghar Baloch of Sindh, who had to contest for the secretary slot, withdrew his candidature, giving an opportunity to Nasir Tung to get elected as PBF secretary.

The outgoing secretary Iqbal Hussain got elected as vice-president. This was after several decades that the PBF set-up was elected from Lahore. And now the PBF secretariat would be at the Punjab capital.

Former AIBA and PBF chief Anwar Chowdhry ruled PBF for decades and when he decided that he would not be going to contest elections in 2008 Doda Bhutto got elected as PBF chief.

The differences developed between Doda and his benefactor and then PBF secretary Akram Khan that divided the federation into two factions. Akram group also held elections of its parallel body here the other day.

Meanwhile sources said that as per rules, no unit that took part in the electoral meeting at Peshawar had deposited their annual fee. As per constitution all dues should be cleared three months before the electoral meeting.

Syed Habib Shah observed the elections as observer from the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB). The POA senior-vice president Syed Aqil Shah was representative of the POA.

Khalid told ‘The News’ after being elected that his main focus would be to prepare lot for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic qualifiers.

“It would be our top priority to bring back Pakistan in the Olympic fold. And in the middle, other international events would also be covered,” Khalid said.

He said effort would be made to focus on youth, adding the provinces would be asked to hold youth competitions on quarterly basis.

He said that the pool of technical staff, like referees/judges and coaches would be enlarged. He said that his priority would be to implement properly the plan which would be made for boxing promotion.

About the immediate target regarding the Islamic Games Khalid said that within ten days the camp would be held for the purpose. He said that boxers in all ten weights would be sent to Baku for the Islamic Games.

“The entries have already been sent and we would focus on those boxers,” he said.

Office-bearers: Khalid Mehmood (president), Syed Nasir Ijaz Tung (secretary), Doda Bhutto (chairman), Mohammad Razzaq (executive vice-president), Nasir Mehmood, Mohammad Asghar Awan, Zulfiqar Ali Butt, Prof Farhan Ebadat Yar Khan, Iqbal Hussain (all vice-presidents), Mohammad Sadiq (treasurer), Sharjeel Zia Butt (joint secretary), Major (retd) Mohammad Riaz, Mohammad Tasawarul Haq, Syed Hafiz Rehman (all members executive committee).