Ashfaq wants PFF NC to focus on holding elections

KARACHI: Former Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) chief Ashfaq Hussain Shah has said that the FIFA-appointed Normalisation Committee (NC) in Pakistan must focus on holding free and fair elections instead of getting into other things.

PFF NC recently appointed Spain’s Daniel Limones as its technical director for six months. Limones, a UEFA Pro License coach, had been associated with Spanish La Liga’s Club Atletico de Madrid and had been working with the club’s academy in Lahore as head coach.

Ashfaq said that hiring a foreign coach seemed to be a good initiative, but it was not the mandate of the normalisation committee to take such decisions while ignoring the tasks it is supposed to undertake.

He said that the purpose of the committee was to hold free and fair elections so that things started rolling in the right direction after a democratically elected body took over.

The NC is supposed to hold PFF elections by December 30 after holding elections at district and provincial levels.

“To travel 1000 miles, you have to first travel the first mile. I am sorry to say that the committee hasn’t done anything so far to demonstrate that it is interested in holding free and fair elections,” Ashfaq told PPI.

Ashfaq was elected as PFF president as a result of the Supreme Court-ordered elections. His team led PFF affairs for around 11 months before he handed the control to the PFF NC appointed by FIFA in September last year.

“We were the rightful elected body but we handed over the control in good faith for the betterment of football in the country to FIFA-appointed Normalisation Committee,” Ashfaq said.

FIFA gave nine months to the committee headed by Humza Khan to hold free and fair elections. However, the committee has taken another six months extension, which ends on December 31.

Ashfaq accused the committee of maneuvering things. “It doesn’t seem they are interested in holding elections,” he said.

He said he was disappointed and FIFA should reconsider its decision if the committee fails to hold free and fair elections within the stipulated time.

He said that so far the committee has done nothing. It has been unable to scrutinise clubs for district level elections that are to be followed by provincial and finally PFF elections.