FIFA appoints Haroon Malik as PFF NC chairman

KARACHI: FIFA on Tuesday appointed Haroon Malik as new chairman of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) Normalisation Committee.

The world football governing body also replaced three members of the NC and retained only one member Muneer Ahmad Khan Sadhana who was serving as acting chairman after the resignation of former chairman Humza Khan.

NC’s members Sikandar Khattak, Col Mujahid and Asma Bilal have been replaced by Haris Azmat, Saud Azim Hashmi and former PFF senior official Shahid Khokhar.

“Following the decision of the Bureau of the FIFA Council to extend the mandate of the normalisation committee of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) until 30 June 2021, FIFA and the AFC have decided to replace three of the four members,” FIFA said in a press release.

“The decision follows the resignation of the previous PFF normalisation committee chairman and aims to give fresh impetus to the normalisation process,” the release said. “While the normalisation committee chairman and members will assume their duties as of January 20, 2021, their final confirmation is conditional upon the successful completion of an eligibility check carried out by the FIFA Review Committee in accordance with the FIFA Governance Regulations,” FIFA said. “All other terms of the mandate of the normalisation committee, as decided by the Bureau of the FIFA Council, remain the same,” it said.

Sadhana and Shahid are nominees of Faisal Group while it could not be known who recommended the other two members Haris Azmat and Saud Hashmi.

This correspondent tried to contact major stakeholders Zahir Shah and Ashfaq Hussain Shah but they did not receive calls. However sources close to them said that they don’t know Haris and Hashmi.

A source close to Zahir said that he (Zahir) is seriously ill. However it was learnt that Haris is a Lahore-based lawyer while Hashmi is a Karachi-based lawyer. Sources said that newly-appointed chairman Haroon Malik is Canada-based.

FIFA has already extended the mandate of the PFF NC until June 30, 2021. The basic task ahead of the NC is to conduct scrutiny of the clubs and hold elections at the district, provincial and PFF levels.

NC initially was installed by FIFA in September 2019 with the mandate to complete the electoral process of the PFF until June 2020. However the said committee under Humza Khan failed to meet the deadline. Six months extension was then given to the NC until December 31, 2020, but still it failed to do anything big towards holding elections. Again six months extension has been given until June 30, this year.