KARACHI:
The Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) president Gen. (retd) Arif Hasan said that he is certain his rivals will not be able to bring a no-confidence movement against the POA general body meeting, to be held in Lahore today.
Akram Sahi and Qasim Zia, presidents of the Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) and the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), respectively, have been making efforts to gain the support of several sports federations to garner a two-third majority vote against Hasan.
“I’m confident that my rivals will not succeed in their plans,” Hasan told The Express Tribune. “It will prove that neither of them enjoys the support of other federations.”
Both Sahi and Zia have been supporting the stance taken up by the Pakistan Sports Board and Inter-Provincial Coordination stance that according to the National Sports Policy, no official can hold office after completing two four-year tenures. But POA that has maintained that it is an independent body and, therefore, not bound to follow the sports policy.
The POA president refuted reports that he has invited an International Olympic Committee (IOC) observer in the meeting.
“No IOC observer is coming for tomorrow’s meeting, but we will keep them updated.”
Hasan stressed that such tactics were being used in a bid to change the focus of the public from the dismal state of affairs of AFP and PHF. He claimed that the PHF president is trying to cover his own blunders by pointing fingers at POA.
“The PHF officials have been deceiving the nation by making tall promises and failing to deliver. The federation gets millions of rupees, which is more than what other federations receive combined, so it’s time someone hold them (the PHF) accountable.”
Both Sahi and Zia were contacted but were not available for comments.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 14th, 2012.
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