Mazari congratulates nation on return to int’l football

KARACHI: The IPC minister Ehsan-ur-Rahman Mazari and Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) Director General Col (retd) Mohammad Asif Zaman have congratulated the whole nation on FIFA’s major step to restore Pakistan’s membership on Thursday.

“It is a historic occasion that Pakistan’s membership has been restored. Now with this step, not only Pakistan will be able to hold its domestic events but it will also be able to field its national teams in international events,” Mazari said.

“It was the result of the IPC’s persistent struggle over the year which helped the Normalisation Committee to regain access to the PFF headquarters which eventually paved the way for restoring Pakistan’s membership with FIFA. Now I hope NC will fulfil its commitment with the government and will hold fair and transparent elections,” Mazari said.

Meanwhile the PSB Director General Asif Zaman said that football was badly missed over the years, saying, the recent decision by FIFA to restore Pakistan’s membership would help the players resume their careers.

“We have a massive base in this game and it was unfortunate that our players had to see the worst time during the last seven years or so. I hope things will go forward now smoothly and football will flourish,” he said.

“We have strong links with NC and all stakeholders and we have sorted out their major issues. I hope NC will go for meeting its mandate to hold fair and free elections of the PFF as per the agreed road-map,” Asif said.