Sports policy already implemented: PSB

Ad hoc committee to hold National Games and POA elections

KARACHI: Pakistan’s sports seemed to have been dragged into a deeper quagmire on Tuesday when the government said it had already implemented the national sports policy and formed an ad hoc committee to hold elections of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) and the 32nd National Games.

Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) at its 21st Board meeting held in Islamabad on Tuesday also gave the committee the responsibility to look after the day-to-day business of sports in the country, sources who attended the meeting told ‘The News’.

The meeting was chaired by the state minister for inter-provincial coordination (IPC) Malik Azmat Khan. Also present were federal sports secretary Fareed Ullah Khan, joint secretary Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Director Generals of the PSB Mir Hamza Gilani and Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera and representatives of federations and departments, including armed forces.

No representative of the federating units took part in the meeting.

The POA chief Lt Gen (retd) Arif Hasan and his close associates Chaudhry Mohammad Yaqoob and Shoukat Javed were invited in their personal capacity but they chose not to attend as the POA’s legal advisor said that since the national Olympic committee had served the IPC with a legal notice against holding of the meeting they could not take part in it.

The PSB said in a statement after the meeting that the national sports policy had already been implemented.

“On the legality of the National Sports Policy, 2005, the house was of unanimous view that the policy was holding the field from the date of the announcement of the Supreme Court’s judgment dated 8th May 2012. The Board, during its meeting dated 05th July, 2012 had already taken a decision on it. Any further discussion in this regard is neither necessary nor part of the agenda of this meeting,” PSB said.

Sources said that the Board was of the view that the POA chief had no legal status following the apex court’s verdict and the Lahore High Court (LHC) had already advised the POA to hold elections for all posts except that of the president.

The POA does not exist, so the National Games conducted in Lahore recently were also illegal and would be conducted in March and April in Islamabad.

“The last issue deliberated upon was of holding of 32nd National Games. Realising that these games lacked national character in view of non-participation of major stakeholders, the Board decided to hold the National Games 2013 in Islamabad. Being cognizant that the National Games are held under the auspicious of the Pakistan Olympic Association which is in jeopardy the Board constituted an ad hoc committee,” PSB said.

“The Board, however, clarified that the decisions taken in the Board meeting are subject to legal restrictions and orders of the court, if any, applicable under the relevant laws,” it said.

The committee will be headed by the Pakistan Basketball Federation’s President Asif Bajwa. Other members are Malik Azmat Khan (IPC state minister), Haji Ghulam Ali (KP), Mudassir Arian (Sindh), Shah Nawaz Marri (Balochistan), Col Qaiser (Army), Zafar Abbas Lak (Senior Vice-President Pakistan Volleyball Federation and IG Motorway Police) and Rana Mujahid (hockey Olympian, Punjab), sources said.

Sources said that the committee would start working from Wednesday (today) and keep contact with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

All those representatives of the federations who have already served for two tenures were not invited to the meeting, which was held at the Zulfiqar Ali Medical University hall.

Sources said that it was also suggested that there should be an arbitration tribunal, carrying members of the POA, federations and PSB, so the disputes in various sports bodies could be resolved without going to courts.

The Board would also promote public-private partnership and infrastructure would be made on the recommendations of the federations.

Sources in the Gen Arif Hasan group said that the government did not have the authority to interfere in the affairs of the POA and the federations.

They said they feared that if the government went on implementing what it had decided then it could invite a ban by the IOC. “There will be chaos and the ultimate sufferers will be the players,” one of the key members of Arif Hasan group said.

On Monday night, Major Gen Akram Sahi and his associates met IPC joint secretary and asked him what the Board was going to do on Tuesday.

The reply was that the government wanted that the sports policy should be implemented. A source questioned how the POA elections could be conducted when the LHC had not issued its detailed judgment as yet.

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