NC to be handed over Football House within two weeks: IPC minister

ISLAMABAD: Football House Lahore will be handed over to the Normalisation Committee (NC) within two weeks, as Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) Dr Fahmida Mirza Thursday announced truce between all four stakeholders paving the way for free and fair elections.

The Minister accompanied by NC Chairman Haroon Malik during a press conference at PID said that Pakistan Football Federation (PFF), GSV and NC all were taken on board.

“All four stakeholders are on board. We have made an all out effort to solve the pending issue that has been there for the last one decade. We have finally resolved it with the help and cooperation of all parties involved,” she said.

Dr Fahmida said the federal government is in constant touch with the Punjab government. “We will make sure that Football House is handed over to the NC within the next two weeks. We want all formalities to be completed at the earliest,” she said.

The Minister also announced extending full cooperation to NC in scrutiny of clubs and holding free and fair elections. “We will make sure that only genuine clubs are allowed to contest elections. We will extend all possible cooperation to the NC with the hope that the FIFA representative body will complete the task at the earliest,” she added.

Dr Fahmida said that the government hoped to have a new Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) in place in eight-month time.

Haroon said that everything was there in the PFF constitution to see. “We hope to conduct elections within 160 days after taking over federation resources. We will go by the PFF Constitution where everything is written. What we want is to hand over the PFF to a genuinely elected body and for that we need proper time. We seek government support to complete all the necessary work according to laid down rules,” he said.

The NC chairman was concerned at the PFF’s (Ashfaq Shah group) handling of PFF finances. “We are waiting for the audit report after which we will be in a position to say anything. Still, we have got enough finances to carry out the election process. FIFA has never shied away from extending financial support for a genuine cause.”