29 November 2004	Monday	16 Shawwal 1425

ISLAMABAD, Nov 28: Following the chaos that marred the elections of swimming federation on Saturday, there have been calls for the Pakistan Olympic Association's offices to be moved to Islamabad from Lahore.

Zafar Ahmed, a former associate secretary of the national athletics federation and veteran tennis player Hameedul Haq said that it was time that such a move was made for the good of sport.

"For long Pakistan sports has suffered at the hands of the Lahore group and it has now become all the more important that the POA offices be shifted," said Hameed, Pakistan's most capped Davis Cup player.

He urged the new president of the POA, Lt. Gen Syed Arif Hasan to do the country's sports a big favour by relocating the offices. Zafar said that a POA based in Islamabad would mean that virtually the entire sporting mess that exists today would be cleaned up by just one single move.

"Everything would fall in place if POA is rooted out from Lahore," said Zafar, also a former 400m national champion. He stressed that a POA in Islamabad would make more sense because it would be able to coordinate effectively and efficiently with the Sports Ministry and the Pakistan Sports Board, which are both in the Capital.