POA set for election today

Election commission may discuss PHC stay order before meeting

KARACHI: A 127-member general council of Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) is set to elect its president and other office-bearers for a four-year tenure in Lahore on Saturday (today).

Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday issued a stay order against the election on the plea of former senator Haji Ghulam Ali.

PHC has summoned respondents on February 4.

POA Election Commission secretary Pervez Ahmed told ‘The News’ that they were set to conduct the elections as per schedule. “We have not received a copy of the court’s stay order. The election commission may decide tomorrow before the election what should be done,” Pervez said.

This correspondent learnt through sources that there was a chance that the result of the election would be withheld. The sources said that the Lahore High Court (LHC) and Sindh High Court (SHC) had not issued any stay order against the election although a few federations had complained that they had been illegally kept out of the electoral process.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) representative Farman Haider reached Lahore on Friday to observe the election.

The electoral meeting will start at 11am.

The POA’s sitting chief Lt Gen (retd) Arif Hasan is likely to be elected for a fourth successive term. He will fight against the president of the Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) Maj Gen (retd) Akram Sahi.

Pakistan Hockey Federation’s (PHF) president Brig Khalid Khokhar has also submitted his nomination papers for the president’s slot from Sahi’s panel as covering candidate.

Khalid Mehmood will be contesting for the secretary’s post while Haji Mohammad Shafiq will be fighting for the post of treasurer from Arif’s panel.

From Sahi’s panel, barrister Chaudhry Zahid and Punjab Olympic Association’s (PbOA) secretary Khwaja Idrees have submitted papers for the secretary’s slot.

Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) president Chaudhry Asghar is the candidate for the treasurer seat from Sahi’s panel.

The general assembly will also elect nine vice-presidents, one lady vice-president, six associate secretaries, one lady associate secretary and 20 members of the Executive Committee (ExCo).

The sources said that Fatima Lakhani had been elected unopposed as vice-president from Arif’s panel.

For the lady associate secretary’s slot Veena Masood from Arif’s panel and Shahida Khan from Sahi’s panel will be fighting.

As per rules the Olympic federations have three votes each, while the non-Olympic federations have two votes each. Departments and provincial Olympic associations have one vote each.

As many as 11 individual members, five lady members and the POA’s president and secretary will also cast their votes.

IOC member in Pakistan Shahid Ali is also expected to cast his vote. FATA and Islamabad have half vote each.