SC orders PFF election within one month

KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday announced that Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) elections would be held within one month, ‘The News’ learnt on Wednesday from people who attended the hearing.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar ruled that the elections would be held under the supervision of Shoaib Shaheen, a member of the Pakistan Bar Council and senior Supreme Court advocate.

Justice Ijaz-ul-Hasan and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah were the other members of the bench.The court announced the elections on a CM filed by Arshad Lodhi on October 23 in which it had been pleaded that in the first phase Punjab Football Association’s (PFA) elections were held and as advised by this court in April, 2018, the elections of the PFF should be held now.

The apex court in April had ordered that the PFA elections should be held within 14 days. It had also said that after the PFA elections the PFF elections would be conducted.The PFA elections were held under the supervision of experienced lawyer Ali Reza last May in which Sardar Naveed Haider was elected as president.

‘The News’ learnt that the court told Shoaib Shaheen that the PFF would give him Rs500,000 for conducting the elections.Shoaib said that he would donate that amount for the construction of dams.

Sardar Aslam and Zulfiqar Chaudhry were the legal counsels of Arshad Lodhi. Afzal Khan represented PFF during the hearing on Wednesday.Afzal told the court that as per rules two months advance notice is given to the units.

It is pertinent to mention here that this case had been disposed of on June 25. FIFA has given time to the PFF until March 2020 to revise its constitution and hold fresh elections. The PFF might also get FIFA’s input following the court’s decision on the matter.

The PFF had last year been suspended by FIFA for third party’s interference. The world body restored Pakistan’s membership in March this year, days after LHC had restored the PFF. The PFF and its rival group had remained involved in a legal fight since 2015 on the issue of PFF elections. Because of the issue, football activities in the country remained suspended for over three years.

Pakistan fell in international rankings and thousands of players and their families faced severe financial problems. It was only last summer that Pakistan returned to international football when they featured in the Asian Games and SAFF Cup held in Indonesia and Dhaka in August and September.Pakistan team is currently in Palestine for an international friendly to be held on Friday (tomorrow) at the Faisal Al-Husseini Stadium in Al-Ram.