August 7, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-us-Sani 8, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 6: Just days after being granted extension, Brig Saulat Abbas resigned as the Director General of the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) on Wednesday.

Saulat who took over at the helm of PSB in early 2000 confirmed that he was stepping down. “Yes I have resigned, in fact I have asked for an early retirement from the Army,” he told Dawn. He had been given extension by the government till February next year.

But Saulat, one of the architects of the new sports policy, remained at war with the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) almost as long as he was in office.

The POA, under heavyweights Wajid Ali Shah and Latif Butt took the PSB head on and only recently were granted stay by the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court over some clauses of the sports policy.

The most controversial clause that forbids officials of national federations from holding office for more than two terms of four years each upset several long-serving sports managers prompting the POA to go to court.

In a bid to implement the policy in letter and spirit, the PSB executive committee in June froze the annual grants of as many as 15 national federations who were reluctant to hold their elections in line with the new policy.

In a tit-for-tat response, the POA announced last month they would themselves support the affected federations, a move termed as “historic” by Saulat.

With his relationship with the POA having gone from bad to worse, Saulat may well have thought it was time to bid adieu. But he denied he was leaving because of any outside pressure. “I am quitting because of purely personal reasons.”