NA body for withdrawing Arif’s name as POA president

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) has recommended withdrawing Lt Gen (r) Arif Hasan’s name (as mentioned in the official press release) as the president of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA).

Though the POA president’s name has never been recommended by the governments as the four-yearly elections participated by all the recognised federations determine the fate of the president.

The committee also recommended that all the sports federations must be made accountable for foreign and local funding before the committee and the ministry for IPC. The ministry officials with Dr Fehmida apprised the committee members about the preparations of the South Asian Games, saying that the budget for the Games had been tripled.

The committee members were also told that the sports policy awaits prime minister’s approval after which it would be presented in the cabinet.

When ‘The News’ approached an official of the POA, he said the association always put the NA Committee in high esteem. “We hope that the committee would listen to our side of the story also. We have lots of things to share with the committee,” he said.

Meanwhile, the POA believes that the matter had already been settled through the Supreme Court’s decision and the Olympic Committee had nothing to do with the government of Pakistan as it is answerable to the IOC.

The POA also quoteed the Supreme Court verdict that says: Supreme Court in case civil review petitions No. 412 and 413 of 2014 in civil appeals no. 1223 and 1224 of 2014. Notably, as per paragraph No.19 of the aims and objectives provided in the association’s Constitution, “Its autonomy, dignity and independence in accordance with the Olympic Charter” is not to be compromised. Hence, we are of the opinion that the federal government does not exercise substantial control on, or have dominance in the controlling affairs of, the Association.

Finally, the federal government does provide funding to defray the costs of sending contingents to the Olympics, however the private activities and other management of the organisation is funded by the Association itself. The overall activities of the organisation are independent and the bulk of the activities carried out are privately funded. A single activity/undertaking is funded by the federal government (i.e. sending teams to the Olympics) and while it is an expensive undertaking, it is only part of what the Association does. Most importantly, no financial interest of the state lies in the functions of the Association....Thus, in light of the above precedents it can be concluded that the Association does not satisfy the function test laid down by this Court and therefore, is not exercising public functions and is not a ‘person’ as per Article 199(5) supra. No writ of quo warranto can therefore lie against its officeholders, nor can a writ lie against the Association in terms of Article 199(1) (a) supra. Even otherwise, the only affiliation that the Association has acquired is that of private bodies such as the IOC which according to the Olympic Charter does not require that the affiliating body be a public body.... Before parting it is found pertinent to mention that indeed, the promotion of sports in Pakistan holds paramount importance and the participation of athletes in international sports events is a matter of immense pride and prestige for the entire nation, however, in the tide of such emotions we cannot lose sight of the fact that a body that is operating independently and is admittedly not being substantially controlled by either the Federal or Provincial Government or any other governmental body and considering the fact that the instant matter does not involve a violation of any of the fundamental rights.”