ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel on Thursday showed grave displeasure over failure of the Pakistan Football Federation Normalisation Committee to begin the election process of the country’s football governing body.

The issues pertaining to the FIFA-appointing PFF NC became the major talking point among other topics as the National Standing Committee on Inter Provincial Coordination met here with MNA Nawab Sher in the chair. The committee was supposed to get briefing from PFF NC chairman Haroon Malik, Athletics Federation of Pakistan president retired Maj Akram Sahi and Pakistan Cricket Board interim management committee chairman Najam Sethi and showed its displeasure over their absence. Although a representative of the PFF NC attended the meeting, the committee deferred the agenda items pertaining to the PFF, PCB and AFP and said that if the officials do not attend the next meeting, the committee will not hesitate in getting their warrants issued. However, before fixing the said matters for next meeting, the committee members showed their concerns over the delay in holding of the PFF elections.

PFF NC’s legal advisor briefed the committee but Federal Minister for IPC Ehsan-ur- Rehman Mazari was of the view that the FIFA-appointed committee is using delaying tactics in conducting the polls. “The NC officials are receiving huge salaries from FIFA but they aren’t showing interest in holding elections,” he said. “If the PFF NC does not begin the election process by the end of March, the government will approach FIFA in this regard.”

The PFF NC had given the government an eight-month roadmap to conduct the elections of the PFF once it regained control of the PFF headquarters. The mandate of the PFF NC, which was installed in September 2019 after years of turmoil in the PFF, is till June next year. The Haroon-led NC had been thrown out of office in March 2021 by a group of officials led by Ashfaq Hussain Shah, who was elected president in polls of the PFF conducted by the Supreme Court in December 2018. Those elections were not accepted by FIFA and soon after the takeover, it slapped a suspension on Pakistan that was lifted in June last year after the PFF NC returned to office.

The PFF NC also opened a new bank account to receive funding from FIFA and the IPC minister stated that the committee was in the dark regarding the perks and funds that had been provided to the players. It was also questioned as to how the PFF NC sent the national team to Saudi Arabia for the four-nation invitational tournament last month without getting No-objection Certificate from the Pakistan Sports Board. MPA Rubina Irfan, a former PFF official, also expressed her concerns, stating that the PFF NC seemed least bothered about the holding of elections despite giving guarantees to the government that they won’t be delayed.

Published in The Daily National Courier, February, 11 2023

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