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IOC reiterates support for Arif Back To Main

The News International

Alam Zeb Safi KARACHI: Taking serious note of the wrangling in Pakistan’s sports fraternity International Olympic Committee (IOC) once again threw its weight behind Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) president Lt Gen (retd) Arif Hasan, reiterating, the body running under him is the only legitimate one in the country.

In a letter issued on Tuesday, which has also been copied to the IOC chief, Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) president, Arif Hasan and IOC member in Pakistan Syed Shahid Ali Shah, IOC has once again made it clear that no organisation other than POA led by Arif Hasan could claim to be the POA. It also said that IOC would not recognise any act of the interim committee that has been formed.

“This is to confirm that the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) currently headed by its President, Lt Gen. (retd) Syed Arif Hasan, and the office-bearers duly and democratically elected by the General Assembly of the POA on 4 February 2012, in the presence of observers from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), is the sole and unique legitimate body recognised by the IOC (and affiliated to the OCA) to act as a National Olympic Committee (NOC) in Pakistan,” the letter, a copy of which is available with ‘The News’, said.

“As per the Olympic Charter, the IOC is the sole body that is entitled to recognise a National Olympic Committee (in this case the Pakistan Olympic Association currently headed by its President, Lt Gen. (retd) Syed Arif Hasan and to authorise such organisation to designate, identify or refer to itself as a “National Olympic Committee”. In essence the existence of an NOC, as such, is therefore derived from its recognition by the IOC”.

“Consequently, no organisation other than the POA, currently headed by its President, Syed Arif Hasan, can claim to represent the POA or act on its behalf or play the role of an “NOC” in Pakistan. In particular, the IOC and OCA will not recognise any decision, resolution or action of any body or so-called “interim committee” claiming to act on behalf of the POA,” the letter added. “Any such decision, resolution or action would indeed violate the Olympic charter and would therefore be automatically null and void. It is regrettable to note that the repeated attempts of a number of individuals/bodies to act against the Olympic Charter and to destabilise the legitimate POA currently headed by its President, Lt Gen. (retd) Syed Arif Hasan, do not serve at all the interests of the Olympic Movement and the athletes in Pakistan. On the contrary, this affects negatively the development of the Olympic Movement in Pakistan and has no effect but to expose unnecessarily the POA to protective measures from the IOC Executive Board, for which these individuals/bodies should be held responsible,” the letter concluded.

The IOC had also sent a letter to Arif Hasan on February 20, 2012 after his election as the POA chief for the third time in a row and had expressed its satisfaction over the way the elections were held under the IOC and OCA observers.

On last Sunday, Arif’s rival group formed a seven-member interim committee, assigning it the task of holding the POA elections, to run day-t-day business of the POA and to hold the 32nd National Games.

POA chief’s rival group is of the view that after the decisions of the Supreme Court and Lahore High Court the POA was not in existence and therefore it was necessary to form a committee which could dispose of the key functions.

But Arif Hasan claims that the apex court’s decision does not apply on him as POA is not an affiliated body