Sahi announces he will contest POA election

KARACHI: In a surprise move, the president of Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) Maj Gen (retd) Akram Sahi on Wednesday announced that he would contest elections for the president’s slot of Pakistan Olympic Association (POA).

The POA elections are scheduled to be held on January 23.

Khwaja Idrees, former ally of POA chief Lt Gen (retd) Arif Hasan, will be vying for the post of secretary from Sahi’s panel.

Sahi, also a former international athlete, announced his plan at a press briefing in Lahore on Wednesday.

Khwaja’s defection to Sahi group was not a surprise as according to sources he had already showed his intention to do so.

According to the sources, during the POA general body meeting on December 30 it was announced that under the light of the agreement signed with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), athletics, cycling and judo federations, which had affiliation with their respective International Federations (IFs), had been re-admitted into the POA and in the future meetings of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) representatives of those federations would sit.

Khawaja, who led a parallel cycling federation, first said that he would withdraw in favour of Kaukab Waraich-led PCF. But, the sources said, later he announced that he had been wrongly treated and he would also contest the POA election.

Sahi told ‘The News’ after the briefing that he also showed reservations over some of the elections rules. “One of my reservations is about the voting right of 16 individual members (11 male, five female) and that of the POA’s president and secretary,” Sahi said.

“There are some other rules which are also controversial,” he said.

“Being himself a candidate for the POA’s president’s slot General Arif cannot form the Election Commission,” he pointed out.

The last date for submitting nomination papers is January 16.

Sahi said that he would unveil his manifesto in a couple of days. “I will announce a mid-term plan, for 8-10 years, and a long-term plan, for 20 years, for sports development. It does not mean if I become the POA’s president I will hold the post for so many years. It will be a sort of plan which, if implemented, even by others, would help sports grow,” he said.

Sahi said that no concrete plan regarding preparation for the South Asian Games had been made by the authorities.

“It could hurt Pakistan’s medal chances,” he said. “Those who decided the final list of events in certain games did not even know how many events there are in a particular discipline, like athletics,” Sahi added.