Kokab, Azhar elected PCF’s chairman, president

KARACHI: Kokab Nadeem Warraich and Syed Azhar Ali Shah were on Monday elected as chairman and president, respectively, of Pakistan Cycling Federation (PCF) in elections held here at the SSGC Headquarters.

The election commission comprising advocate Hashim Raza, advocate Saeed Roman and Mohammad Ali conducted elections on the direction of the international cycling governing body (UCI) and Asian Cycling Confederation (ACC).

Both the top officials were elected as unopposed. Kokab also remained PCF president in the previous term. Pakistan Sports Board’s (PSB) senior official Mohammad Azam Dar was present in the electoral meeting as an observer.

According to the PCF, the representative of the ACC could not reach due to some engagement in Sri Lanka. Interestingly, two individuals were elected as secretaries. Nisar Ahmad will serve as secretary for the first two years. Moazzam Khan will act as secretary for the remaining two years. It was decided through mutual understanding, the PCF said.

Jan-e-Alam was elected as finance secretary unopposed while Islamabad-based sports journalist Sufi Haroon was elected as public relations officer (PRO) unopposed.

The Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) is yet to reinstate PCF which was suspended for not fulfilling the article-VI of the former’s constitution. The UCI recently told the PCF to go for elections.

Early this year UCI chief had decided to send the ACC chief to Pakistan to meet both the parties so that the pressing issue could be resolved. But so far no development has been made in that direction.

The POA also tried for reconciliation with the PCF through a mediation committee but the dialogue failed to bear any fruit. The POA claims that the provincial associations affiliated with the PCF are not affiliated with their respective Olympic associations. Because of the issue, it remains uncertain whether there will be cycling competitions in the 33rd National Games.

A PCF official on Monday said that the provincial associations registered with the provincial Olympic associations are part of the Khawaja Idrees-led parallel PCF. Office-bearers: Kokab Nadeem Warraich (chairman), Azhar Ali Shah (president), Col Sadaf Akram (senior vice-president), Rubina Khalid, Col (retd) Shoaib, Javed Khan, Mehdi Raza, Moazzam Khan (all vice-presidents), Ayaz Khan Tareen, Shahzada Butt, Ishtiaq Mubeen, Ayesha Zaman, Maham Tariq (all associate secretaries).