Faisal-led body yet to get control of PFF office

KARACHI: Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) on Wednesday alledged that administrator Asad Munir in a blatant violation of the Lahore High Court (LHC) order refused to hand over the control of the federation to it on Wednesday.

“Despite explicit orders by a division bench of the Lahore High Court the administrator has not handed over the control of PFF to its elected body,” the PFF said in a press release. The LHC has upheld the June 30, 2015, PFF elections the other day and ordered the administrator to immediately hand over the control of the PFF to the body which had been formed as a result of that election.

The PFF said that Syed Khadim Ali Shah, senior vice-president of PFF, had been authorised by the PFF chief Faisal Saleh Hayat to take the charge of the federation from the administrator.

When the PFF elected members headed by Khadim reached the PFF headquarters, they found that the administrator and his staff had already left after locking the secretariat entry gates, the release said. “The PFF elected members kept waiting for two hours there in the presence of media,” the release said.

It quoted Faisal as saying that if according to the latest promise made by the administrator complete charge of PFF was not handed over to the elected body it would exercise all legal remedies available.

When ‘The News’ contacted Asad Munir, he said: “Tomorrow I will meet them and everything will be made final.”Meanwhile, a source in the PFF’s rival group told ‘The News’ that they had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court on Wednesday against the LHC’s order. “The Arshad Lodhi group filed an appeal today in the apex court. The apex court also issued notices to the parties concerned,” the source claimed.

The source said that the plea of Arshad Lodhi group was that one group held its elections on June 30, 2015, despite the court’s restraining order while the other group decided against that due to the stay order.

The court punished that group which had followed its stay order and rewarded that party which had held its elections against its restraining order.The source said that the apex court had been requested to order that status quo be maintained.