Tahir becomes PSF vice president

KARACHI: Tahir Jamil Khanzada and Qamar Zaman have been elected and re-elected, respectively, as the vice presidents of Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) at its annual general meeting held in Islamabad on Monday.

“Tahir has been elected as new vice president in place of Amjad Ali Noon, while Qamar Zaman has been re-elected,” said PSF secretary Amir Nawaz while talking to ‘The News’. He added that the performance of players and preparations for World Junior Championship were also discussed at the meeting.

“There was also discussion on our junior academies being run in different cities of the country. The president ASF has directed us to fully utilise the four-wall glass court,” said the secretary.Amir stated that cash awards were given to the team that recently won Asian Senior Championship. “The president lauded our junior programme as some 94 participations were recorded in international junior events this year,” he added.

Meanwhile, the nomination and election of Tahir sparked a controversy as one of the members of general body and executive committee strongly opposed the election and boycotted the AGM and the Executive Committee meeting. “Jahangir Khan nominated Tahir and since Tahir is a controversial personality I strongly opposed his nomination,” said the member when contacted.

The member, who is also an official of a provincial squash association, added that Jahangir said that only the one he nominated would become the VP of PSF. “I asked him how he can claim that. I said he had no authority to dictate the matters of PSF. I told him that I never saw him in AGMs of the federation in last seven years,” said the member.

The member stated that things were not right at PSF. “The federation will do what Jahangir wants now. Before the AGM other members and officials came to me and requested to leave this issue, saying that Jahangir is a legendary player,” added the member. “I had no option but to surrender.”

It is worth adding here that Tahir has been deposed from the president-ship of Sindh Squash Association (SSA) but he formed a new association, which is not recognised by Sindh Olympic Association (SOA) and Sindh Sports Board (SSB).

Balochistan Squash Association (BSA) recently decided to take legal action against Tahir, who heads the refereeing directorate of PSF. “The BSA was all ready to file a constitutional petition against Tahir for ignoring and humiliating referees from Balochistan but a senior PSF official intervened and requested the BSA not to go for litigation against Tahir,” said a source. It is pertinent to mention that PSF did not invite SSA headed by Muzaffar Ali Shujra to the AGM.