28-Sep-2013
MEDIA reports suggested that the federal government has begun to pull back support from a rival Olympic committee of Maj-General ® Akram Sahi, and the inter-provincial coordination minister simultaneously wishes to talk with General Arif Hassan, the sitting President of the Pakistan Olympic Committee.
That, indeed, is a good omen, for vested interests, under the official patronage of IPC minister, Mr Piracha had begun to damage the cause of sports, so much so that the country’s entry into coming Olympics seemed doubtful. Such an eventuality, whose dark shadows had already started to cast doubts over our participation in Olympic games, would have been disastrous. Pakistan sports would have finished for a long time.
Good sense seem to have prevailed following a critical analysis in this newspaper a couple of weeks ago about the serious consequences of the unfortunate tussle between a genuinely organized committee, and a fake one, created with the support and backing of a federal minister.
It was at General Arif Hasan’s intervention that Pakistan athletes were allowed to participate in Islamic Solidarity games, for, earlier they were barred for forming a parallel body. POA is the only representative body of the Olympic games in Pakistan, and any deviation from Olympic charter would be dangerous for Pakistan.
Likewise Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif must pay some attention to Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), both of which now need to be overhauled.
Unfortunate for the country, vested interests like Qasim Zia and Asif Bajwa, both political appointees, destroyed a game which had been bringing laurels to the country, and was our flag bearer in the world. Pakistan was ousted from the World Cup, which in itself, was such a massive insult that all those gluing to the Hockey Federation, should have resigned by now for failing in their duties. Now Asif Bajwa has very cleverly sidelined himself, and appointed a stooge like Rana Mujahid as secretary of the PHF to carry out his orders through backdoor.
As for the PCB, the less said the better it is. Its caretaker chairman Najam Sethi with no cricket credentials worth the name, has now begun to insult the superior judiciary, and instead of honouring his promise to quit on Sept 23 if no order was passed by the court by then, has still remained glued to his seat. He is taking decisions and running the cricket board. He should have quit by now.
Secondly, the Constitution of the Board is seriously flawed with bloomers like sidelining major cricketing centres of Karachi and Lahore from its governing board and nstead including in their place inconsequential cities like Larkana etc; and commercial establishments. The Constitution of the PCB must be revised to give two instead of just one vote to Karachi and Lahore, and then elections should be held for new office bearers. Mr Najam Sethi should do that before going out. If he does that, he may save some of already badly tarnished image. |
