August 25, 2003	Monday	Jumadi-us-Sani 26

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LAHORE, Aug 24: Two groups led by Faisal Saleh Hayat and Riaz Hussain Pirzada battling to take control of Pakistan football after Aug 28 elections have united after meetings late Saturday night.

A joint group has been formed after discussions which is likely to be elected at the elections to be held here.

According to nomination papers, Faisal, a interior minister and Arshad Khan Lodhi, the Punjab agriculture minister, have been nominated as the candidates for the post of president and secretary respectively.

PFF secretary Agha Liaquat Ali, who had been lobbying to retain his position, has been nominated for post of senior vice-president. PFF vice-president Ghulam Abbas Baloch has again been nominated as vice-president, while Zahir Shah from NWFP will also contest for vice-presidency replacing Ali Nawaz of PIA.

Two associate secretaries nominated are Ronaq Ali Rajput from Sindh and Naseebullah Mirza from Balochistan, while the present associate secretary Irfan Gohar of Railways has not been nominated for the post.

PAF’s wing commander Pervez Saeed Mir, who had been lobbying for the secretaryship, has been nominated for the post of treasurer and is expected to replace Mian Aamir Mahmood.

Pervez is the only candidate nominated from eight departments for the main body, while candidates from provinces have been nominated for the remaining posts.

The candidates nominated for the five-member executive body are Mohammad Ilyas (NWFP), Aziz Malik (Punjab), Shafi Akhwand (Sindh),  Brig Arif Mahmood Siddiqi (Army) and Hafiz Sohaib Butt (Wapda).

Meanwhile, the  referee association has also changed  its representative to PFF after it appointed Qazi Asif (NWFP) in place of Shakoor Baloch (Sindh).

Besides  Ali Nawaz, Irfan Gohar and Aamir Mahmood, the fourth officials who would not be able to retain his place senior vice-president Saeed Khan from NWFP.

However, the nomination of two ministers for the key posts raises doubts as the game would suffer because of their officials activities. Football has already been damaged in the last four years due to political engagements of president Mian Mohammad Azhar and Aga Liaquat.

The PFF, under Azhar and Liaquat failed to start league despite repeated directives from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It also failed to organise Under-16 training camps in collaboration with the provinces.

Football suffered despite having services of two AFC qualified coaches because of PFF’s unprofessional attitude, while the Football House is yet to be built despite being selected for FIFA’s $400,000 Goal Project.