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Saturday March 30, 2024

Sports bodies’ conflicts likely to end soon

By Alam Zeb Safi
December 12, 2015

KARACHI: The long-standing dispute of Pakistan’s Olympic movement is expected to be resolved in near future as International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) have reached an agreement with Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) and the president of Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) Maj Gen (retd) Akram Sahi, who once led a parallel POA.

Highly credible sources told ‘The News’ that the agreement was reached at a meeting of the president of OCA and IOC member Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah with Sahi and POA chief Lt Gen (retd) Arif Hasan in Lausanne on October 17.

The sources said if the points in the agreement were properly implemented all the differences within the sports fraternity of Pakistan would be removed. It would pave the way for smooth conduct of POA elections which are due to be held by February 3, 2016.

The sources said that Sahi group had agreed to hand over the keys to the premises of the Olympic House in Lahore to Shahid Ali, IOC representative in Pakistan.

Shahid and IOC/OCA member Haider Farman will soon contact Sahi for the keys to be handed over to them.

Sahi group occupied the Olympic House in September 2013.

The IOC has accepted Sahi’s demand for re-admittance of Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) led by Col (retd) Shujaat Ali Rana, Sahi-led AFP, Kokab Nadeem Waraich-led Pakistan Cycling Federation (PCF) and Mudassar Arain-led Pakistan Netball Federation (PNF) into the POA.

These federations are recognised by their International Federations (IFs), but they disassociated themselves from the POA.

The sources said the IOC had said that these four federations should inform POA about their willingness to join it.

The IOC and the OCA have also agreed that the conflict of the parallel federations would be resolved so that genuine bodies could take part in the POA’s electoral process.

The IOC would once again verify the status of all federations working in Pakistan through their respective IFs before the POA’s elections.

The IOC has also agreed if still there is about the legality of any federation it would recommend that the respective international federation send its officials to Pakistan to assess the situation and take a final decision which will be binding on all parties concerned.

The sources said that according to Sahi group the status of around 13 federations was still disputed. ‘The News’ learnt that Sahi group would have to withdraw all pending cases in various courts.

The POA is set to discuss these issues in its executive committee meeting which has been convened in Lahore on December 19.

When this correspondent asked a top official of POA about this early this week, he said that issues like the re-entry of four federations into the POA would be discussed in the executive committee meeting.

A few years ago some federations challenged the national sports policy in the Lahore High Court (LHC). The LHC gave its verdict in favour of the federations.  Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) challenged it in the Supreme Court. The apex court allowed the appeal of the Board and in its decision on May 8, 2012, it ruled that the Board had the powers to make rules and implement them. It means that the Board could impose the tenure-restriction clause of the sports policy on those federations who were associated with it.

The Board subsequently enforced the clause on all federations except Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) which is still fighting a legal battle with the Board on the issue.

In July 2013, Sahi got elected as the parallel POA’s chief, which had the support of the government.

The dispute grew further which also hurt Pakistan’s participation in international events.

In 2014, government officials held a meeting with the IOC in Lausanne. In order to prevent Pakistan from IOC’s sanctions the ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) decided to recognise Arif Hasan-led POA.