Ashfaq-led body decides to hand over PFF office, accounts

KARACHI: Syed Ashfaq Hussain-led Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) on Thursday endorsed unanimously the FIFA-appointed normalisation committee and decided to hand over the PFF headquarters and bank accounts to it, a source in the PFF Congress told ‘The News’.

The decision was made at a meeting of PFF Congress held at the PFF headquarters in Lahore on Thursday. The source said that a four-member committee comprising Ashfaq, and vice presidents Amir Dogar, Syed Zahir Shah and Naved Haider was constituted which would hand over the headquarters and accounts to the committee which is headed by Humza Khan.

The source said that the four-member committee would hold a meeting on Friday (today) to finalise the timing of the handover. FIFA a few days ago announced the five-member committee which besides chairman Humza has Sikandar Khattak, Munir Ahmed Khan Sadhana, Syed Hasan Najib Shah and former PFF secretary general Col Mujahidullah Tareen.

After removing former PFF secretary Col Ahmed Yar Lodhi in its first meeting a few days ago the NC made Col Mujahid its secretary. A source said that the controversial status of some NC members was debated in the PFF Congress but eventually the house decided that NC should be backed.

FIFA has tasked the NC to conduct club scrutiny, and hold elections at the district and provincial level before going for PFF elections. Initially the committee has been given nine months.

The NC has already held a couple of meetings at Lahore and will go for recruiting its staff in a few days so that it is able to conduct day-to-day affairs of football in Pakistan. The NC will also be able to get operational funds from both FIFA and Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

A few days ago, according to a source, outgoing PFF chief Faisal Saleh Hayat wrote a letter to FIFA about the controversial selection of the NC chairman and one of its key members. Before the Congress meeting on Thursday, there were reports that a split had been created between Dogar group and Zahir Shah group and the outcome of the meeting could be disastrous. However, a source said, that majority of the house decided that the NC should be backed in its working so that the long-standing dispute could be resolved.

Ashfaq-led PFF had taken control of the PFF headquarters and accounts from former FIFA-recognised PFF on the instructions of the Supreme Court.