PFF’s suspension Govt to act after court verdict: Pirzada

KARACHI: The federal minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) Riaz Hussain Pirzada on Tuesday said that his ministry would take a step towards resolving football issue once court gave its verdict.

“You know the matter is in the court. When it gives its decision we will send our secretary and the president of Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) Lt Gen (retd) Arif Hasan to Zurich for negotiations with FIFA as Arif knows the things much better and can explain the situation before the world football body,” Pirzada told ‘The News’ in a detailed chat.

Asked if FIFA did not accept the court’s orders, he said, “It would be difficult.”

FIFA last week suspended Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) and said that unless the PFF headquarters in Lahore and its accounts were handed over to the federation, the suspension would not be lifted.

Pirzada said that his ministry and Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) had no role in the whole affair. “We have had no role in the whole episode and we are still out of it,” he said.

“We had written to FIFA that it was the matter of the federation and we have no role in it. We had requested the world body not to suspend Pakistan and honour our courts,” the minister revealed.

He said that the ministry had also written to FIFA that the PFF did not allow the government access to its accounts for audit. He added that instead of football development the PFF had been utilising FIFA’s funding for litigation and foreign tours. “Is it football development?” the minister said.

“We always respect International Olympic Committee (IOC) and FIFA charters and you have seen how we resolved such a conflict in the past by negotiating with the IOC,” Pirzada said.

The minister said that he plans to keep the game alive in the country in the suspension time-frame. “We are getting time from the Prime Minister for a meeting and we will try to get funds from the government to hold football competitions in order to keep the game alive in this tough time,” the minister said.

“We are also going to hold Quaid-e-Azam Inter-Provincial Games from December 7 in Islamabad. We will get the provinces in confidence and will try to make football event a part of those Games,” Pirzada said.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday Lahore High Court (LHC) held a hearing of the football case in which PFF’s counsel Asma Jehangir gave her arguments. Justice Jawad Hassan and Ayesha Malik heard the case.

Asma read out FIFA’s letters of Pakistan’s suspension and its PFF-pro stance. The court said that it would focus on three matters: the maintainability of the writ petition filed by the PFF, the eligibility of PFF secretary Col Lodhi to file writ on behalf of PFF and the election. The PFF’s rival group was represented by lawyer Zulfiqar Butt. Sources said that the court would give next date of hearing on Wednesday (today). Pakistan has not featured in any international event since April 2015 because of the conflict.

FIFA in summer 2015 had given two years to Faisal group with the instructions to revise the constitution and hold fresh elections by September 2017. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) had requested FIFA to give two more years to Faisal group, but as PFF headquarters and accounts were not in possession of the PFF, the FIFA decided to suspend Pakistan.