Ashfaq group likely to submit mechanism for elections today

KARACHI: The Ashfaq group is likely to submit to the Ministry of IPC a mechanism on Monday (today) which it has prepared for holding the PFF elections.

The Ministry had advised the group to submit its mechanism within three days during a meeting with the group the other day. This correspondent has learnt that the Ashfaq group has given reference to Article 90 of the PFF 2014 Constitution which explains the whole electoral procedure. The group sources said that the elections can be held within four months and there is no need of vacating the PFF headquarters for that as elections will be held in the districts and not in the PFF House.

Sources said that the document also explains that there are 2143 registered clubs and of them 700 have voting rights and 500 have playing rights. The Ministry has been told that following verification if any club having enjoyed playing rights may be given voting rights if they fulfill the requirements.

The Ministry has also been informed in the document that Punjab’s elections were held under the court orders in 2018 and the elections of the districts and provincial bodies in KP, Sindh, Balochistan and Islamabad had been held in 2015. Their tenures had to end in 2019 but as per constitution they will stay until new elections.

The IPC minister Dr Fehmida Mirza is involved in the process to normalise the situation so that the Normalisation Committee could regain its access to the PFF headquarters. Sources said that a big issue before NC was the stay order of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Bahawalpur bench. The stay had been taken by the Punjab Football Association (PFA) that as the provincial body had been elected in 2018, it would stay until 2022 and so could not be dissolved.

FIFA recently gave a three-month extension to the Haroon Malik-led NC until the end of this year.

The NC has already shared an election roadmap with the IPC but there are a few things in it not acceptable to the Ashfaq group. The election mechanism is likely to be submitted by the Ashfaq group on Monday (today).