September 09, 2006	Saturday	Sha'aban 15, 1427

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LAHORE, Sept 8: The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) have gone out of their way to oblige a senior sports official by including bodybuilding as additional discipline among the ones to be contested by Pakistan in the forthcoming 15th Asian Games.

Mohammad Yahya, a former associate secretary of POA, was recently elected as the president of the recently inaugurated Pakistan Bodybuilding Federation (PBF) and he has, apparently, managed to prevail upon the decision makers for the Asiad.

A close friend of POA chief, Syed Arif Hasan who is also the chairman of Pakistan Sports Trust, Yahya has successfully campaigned for bodybuilding to be included among the disciplines that are to be contested by 200-strong contingent in Doha, Qatar from December 1.

The highly controversial PBF polls were recently held after a long gap of two years mainly due to the infighting of rival groups. It is interesting to note that no bodybuilding competitions have been held in

The country for the past two years and the Pakistani musclemen are certainly not fit to compete in a high-profile contest such as the Asian Games.

It is believed that Yahya’s ‘clout’ campaign would only result in joyriding for a few musclemen and a couple of officials.

Meanwhile, three provinces and Police staged boycott of the PBF elections on Thursday to protest aginst the unconstitutional way to electing its office-bearers.