SHC orders status quo on PFF election process

KARACHI: Sindh High Court on Thursday ordered status quo in election matter of Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) till further orders.

The interim order came on a lawsuit filed by Mohammad Siddiqui who challenged the election process of PFF.

Plaintiff’s counsel Tehmasp Rasheed Razvi submitted that the plaintiff was aggrieved by the letters issued by the PFF inviting all football clubs to partake in elections.

He said that the case pertains to a dispute regarding the PFF and the Normalisation Committee appointed by Federation International De Football Association (FIFA). The counsel submitted that PFF’s self-acclaimed president was operating on his own whims and was illegally attempting to commence the election process so that he may be elected as the president of PFF.

He stated that the defendant had no authority to initiate the election process as FIFA does not officially recognise him.

He submitted that the election process requires the voting clubs to cast their votes at a district level in order to elect their president. However, in the present case, the defendant was seeking votes from dummy clubs which he has set up as a façade for merely voting purposes.

He said that the plaintiff’s club, despite being registered with the relevant football association, had not been invited to take part in the elections.

He stated that such elections, being illegal, would not contribute anything to the welfare of football in Pakistan. He submitted that if the defendant continued to illegally govern the PFF then Pakistan would remain suspended by FIFA.

He submitted that FIFA Legal Handbook of 2021 and the FIFA statutes unequivocally state that the member associations obligations include full compliance with the statutes, regulations, directives and decisions of FIFA bodies. He submitted that FIFA on March 30, 2021, had directed the defendant to hand over the FIFA House to the Normalisation Committee. The counsel of normalisation committee and Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) sought time to file counter affidavit in the case.SHC’s single bench headed by Justice Arshad Hussain Khan after hearing the arguments of the counsel repeated notice to the PFF’s president and others and till third week of December the court ordered the parties to maintain status quo.