November 26, 2006	Sunday	Ziqa'ad 4, 1427

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KARACHI, Nov 25: Tags were affixed on the otherwise shining careers of boxers Mehrullah and Faisal Karim this week after they were slapped a six-month suspension for testing positive and stripped of their South Asian Games gold medals on Thursday.

Neither the Pakistan Amateur Boxing Federation (PABF) offered an apology to the nation nor did it announce to take stern action against the two pugilists who were found guilty for taking steroids at Colombo in August.

Terming the incident as ‘bad’, the only statement the boxing body could come up with was “the two boxers would be replaced by other boxers for the Asiad in Doha.”

Mehrullah rose to fame after he was crowned with gold medal at the Busan Asian Games four years back. The Lyari boxer was subsequently showered with praise and rewards, both at the provincial as well as the state level.

On May 23, 2003 President Musharraf drove to the KPT Sports Complex to hug and embrace Mehrullah for winning laurels for the nation at the 2002 Busan Asian Games.

It was a historic day for the boxer as well as for the boxing federation as the president awarded a cheque for Rs 4.5 million to the talented pugilist.

Encouraged by the reward and the tremendous response to his achievement, Mehrullah trained harder to capture yet another gold in the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games besides being adjudged ‘Best Boxer’.

But the recent drug ban has spoiled everything for the two boxers, creating doubts in the minds of people about the legitimacy of their victories in the local as well international competitions in the past.

It is high time the government tackled this menace of drugs/steroid use among the athletes. In the cases of the two pugilists, their act warrants stripping of their titles and refund of award money.—A.Z