Amir Dogar group to contest football elections

KARACHI: Malik Amir Dogar group on Sunday announced that it would contest football elections to be organised by Normalisation Committee at all levels.

“I announce today that Amir Dogar group will contest elections at district and provincial levels throughout Pakistan and also at the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) presidency level,” he said in a video message.

Dogar was one of the partners in the coalition which formed the PFF as a result of elections held in December 2018 under Supreme Court orders.

In those elections, Ashfaq Hussain Shah was elected as the PFF chief. On the instructions of the apex court the then FIFA-recognised PFF had to hand over the PFF headquarters and accounts to Ashfaq-led PFF. When FIFA appointed Normalisation Committee in order to resolve the long-standing dispute, Ashfaq-led PFF handed over in September 2019 the headquarters and accounts to Humza Khan-led NC which has got mandate following a six-month extension, until December 31, 2020, to conduct club scrutiny, and hold elections at district, provincial and PFF levels.

NC had been given nine months until June but it failed to do its job. So far even the club scrutiny, that is to be the first step, has not been initiated.

“We will not let anyone do any injustice with the football officials at any level,” said Amir, also a PTI MNA from Multan.

His nomination papers, along with those of Zahir Shah and Naveed Haider for the PFF presidency, had been rejected for the apex court-ordered elections. “We will formally start contacting football stakeholders after Eid-ul-Azha,” Amir said.