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Thursday March 28, 2024

‘Constitution violated in PTF secretary appointment’

By Waqar Hamza
August 03, 2017

KARACHI: Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) did not follow the procedure laid down in its constitution when appointing Sanaullah Aman as the secretary, a source said.

“This is sheer violation of the PTF’s constitution,” said a source. PTF stated on Tuesday that its president had, in accordance with the constitutional authority vested in his office, approved the appointment of Sanaullah as the secretary, effective from August 1, 2017.

The position fell vacant when Khalid Rehmani resigned. “The person to be appointed on any official positions in PTF, especially secretary, should be an elected member of any affiliated unit of PTF,” said the source.

‘The News’ tried to contact Sanaullah and the PTF president but they were not available for comments. This scribe also tried to contact senior vice president Khawar Hayat but he too didn’t receive the call.

“Sanaullah is not a member, let alone elected, of any affiliated unit nor was he nominated by any affiliated unit. He is just an employee of CDA,” said the source.

PTF, he added, should hold elections for the post. “The president could have given the charge to any of four joint secretaries till the elections but he is more into favouritism which is evident from the number of high posts at PTF given to people who do not represent any unit of PTF,” said the source.

The source added that the president can only appoint advisors. “But nobody is taking action against such moves and it seems these people are not accountable to anyone,” said the source.

PTF is going to confirm his appointment through its general council soon, said the source, adding: “How can the council confirm his appointment when he is not a member of any unit of PTF?“This illegal appointment of the secretary is a clear violation of the constitution.”

The source said the performance of PTF had been going down since the current management took charge in December 2014.He said that a cursory look at its achievements in the past three years reveals that Pakistan were ranked 34th in Davis Cup in 2015. They slid to 45 in 2016 and in 2017 are ranked 42nd after getting walkover against Hong Kong recently.

In Fed Cup, Pakistan were 13th in Asia out of 13 teams in 2014. In 2015 and 2016, the team’s position was ninth out of 11 teams.In Junior Davis Cup (under-16), Pakistan stood second out of 14 teams in 2015.

In 2016, they were fifth out of 14 teams and in 2017 seventh out of 14 teams. The under-12 boys’ team recently stood sixth out of seven teams in Nepal.In the 2005 edition of Islamic Games, Pakistan had won three gold medals, two silver and one bronze, but the country managed only one silver medal in the recent edition in Baku. The women’s team, too, performed poorly and stood sixth among six teams.