POA chief urged to consider ending dispute

Sports officials want Hasan to stop complaining to IOC.

KARACHI:

Officials of various sports federations have urged Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) President Arif Hasan to find an amicable solution through dialogue with local authorities, instead of putting the country in danger of receiving a ban from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

With the IOC already having sent an invitation to Hasan and a representative of Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) for a meeting on February 15 at its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, sports authorities of the country want the POA chief to finally bring the dispute to an end.

The PSB and Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC) sports wing are keen to enforce the national sports policy, which bars any official from taking office for more than two four-year tenures.

This has resulted in a deadlock between the POA and its rivals, as the national Olympic body feels they are not liable to implement any sports policy as they come under the IOC wing and follows its charter.

“Hasan should sit down with sports authorities to avoid the looming ban on Pakistan from the IOC,” one of the chiefs of a national sports federation told The Express Tribune.“It’s not wise to discuss your country’s issue with a third party. This has become a serious matter for sports in Pakistan and a solution should be found soon through dialogue.”

Meanwhile, another sports body chief clarified that it is not the PSB which has formed the seven-member ad-hoc committee to hold elections of the POA and the provincial Olympic associations. The committee was in fact formed by the executive council of PSB that was also responsible for conducting the National Games.

“I want to clarify that an ad-hoc team has been made by PSB’s executive council, not the PSB itself or the IPC,” he said. “We can assure that we too don’t want the government’s interference in sports. This is why we’ve asked the IPC sports wing to present detailed minutes of the meeting as important information was missing in the minutes prepared earlier.”

The official said that if the government tried to force its authority which it is not doing right now, the sports bodies would stand against it because sports should be kept separate from politics.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2013.