Daily Times

LAHORE: A meeting of the Punjab Football Association (PFA), supported by the government, was held here on Sunday at Gulberg Government College, under the patronage of the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB). The meeting was chaired by Hafiz Salman Butt, a former General Secretary of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF), who is serving a life ban imposed by FIFA from taking part in any kind of football related activity. Reliable sources confirmed Monday that out of the 36 Congress members of the PFA, only 11 attended the said meeting that was a total failure. It is pertinent to mention that Rana Ashraf, who claims to be the President of the PFA and Khalid Mehomood, posing as Secretary General, are serving a long time ban imposed by a Disciplinary Committee of the PFF and are barred from taking part in any football related activity.

The sources also confirmed that, once again, all the Punjab Congress members were ‘pressurised’ to attend this meeting, which was backed by the government despite clear orders from a division bench of the Lahore High Court that the government and the PSB would not interfere in any matters of the PFF. “Majority of the recognized PFA Congress members have already extended their full support and confidence in Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat-led PFF and the PFA under the Presidency of Sardar Naveed Haider Khan,” added the sources. The sources questioned that how could a person, who had been declared persona non grata by FIFA, chaired the ‘so called’ football meeting, utilizing government facilities. “After FIFA lifted the suspension on the PFF earlier this month, all football fans and players are looking forward for national and international competitions to return but the same people, who were involved in the destruction of football in Pakistan, are once again hatching conspiracies against FIFA and the legitimate PFF,” sources concluded.

Published in Daily Times, March 27^th 2018.