By Mark Baber
June 17 – The chaos in the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) continues with an Extraordinary Congress on Tuesday reportedly suspending its president and secretary ahead of the elections planned for June 30.
Ex-politician and long-time PFF president Faisal Saleh Hayat was suspended with Arshad Khan Lodhi taking over his position, whilst PFF general secretary Col. Ahmad Yar Khan Lodh was sacked.
Only 18 of the 26 members of the PFF Congress attended the meeting but those attending claimed the meeting was legitimate as the members had written to the PFF Executive Committee to call an Extraordinary Congress on April 26 but none had been arranged, so according to the PFF Constitution the members, as long as they make up at least a third of the congress, they are entitled to themselves call an Extraordinary Congress.
The meeting, which included no representatives from Sindh or Balochistan, reportedly sacked the president, who is a member of FIFA’s Strategy Committee, and the secretary on the basis of “their incompetence and financial embezzlements,” although Hayat will apparently be allowed to run for re-election in the upcoming vote.
For his part, Hayat, questioned the legitimacy of the Extraordinary Congress asking: “First of all, who are these people in legal terms? We should understand that they are non-entities in the PFF.”
Arshad, who is now supposed to be overseeing the PFF elections at the end of this month, was suspended by Hayat, along with 18 other members of the Punjab Football Association, for forming a parallel body in the province, although Arshad, of course, claims that he is the legitimate elected representative from the Punjab and questions the legality of the PFF Disciplinary Committee which banned him.
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